Consumers are spending more time online than ever before. To compete for their attention and wallets, retailers and brands are exploring new opportunities to integrate engaging and unique content into the online shopping experience. Contextual commerce is emerging as one of those opportunities.

Contextual commerce describes a situation in which a customer buys a product directly while viewing it online, rather than having to go to a separate website, search for the item, place it in the shopping cart, and fill out payment information. Other terms that have been used to describe this type of “in the situation” transaction include conversational commerce and, in the publishing and media world, “shoppable” content.

In this Insight Brief Jill Finger Gibson takes a look at the trends and shares insights on the state of the art with Contextual Commerce. In it, Jill breaks down the differences between Traditional and Contextual, explores the impact of social, and unpacks the key challenges.