What Publishers need from Merchants this coming Holiday Season
Posted 4 years ago by Alannah Trew
Merchants often ask us what they need to do to be featured in Publishers Commerce Content during the key holiday shopping season.
So we’ve conducted a survey with our leading publishers across the US, UK and APAC to find out what they need from merchants to make the 2020 holiday season a success.
Participating Publishers in the survey include Hearst, Conde Nast, Verizon, News UK, Refinery29, Future, Buzzfeed and News Corp Australia.
A clear takeaway is that Publishers want Merchant offers early:
- 71% of APAC publishers will have their content ready by the end of September
- 86% of UK publishers will have their content ready by the end of October
- 44% of US publishers will have their content ready by the end of October
That means publishers need offers from Merchants far in advance of the main holiday season:
- 47% of UK publishers want deals and offers no later than October
- 53% of US publishers want deals and offers no later than October
- And an amazing 100% of APAC publishers want deals and offers in September
If merchants can provide publishers with early access to their deals and offers, they increase the chance of being included in holiday season articles, especially those on Black Friday. Publishers are happy to work under embargo or sign NDA’s to receive early access to this key information.
Publishers are also open to flat fee deals to help merchants guarantee content. Merchants should speak to their Skimlinks Account Manager for more information and help in facilitating these deals.
What is the biggest obstacle Publishers are facing?
There are two main obstacles that are consistent across all publishers who responded to the survey:
- Early access to deals
- Knowing what sales are going to happen and when
What do Publishers need from merchants?
Publishers consistently want three things from publishers:
- Sale start and end dates
- Top products/best sellers going on sale
- Detailed information, down to SKU level, for products that will be on sale
How will Publishers choose which merchants to write about this holiday season?
Publishers use a mix of elements to assess merchants when choosing who to write about. The top responses are:
- Free Shipping
- Consumer experience on the merchants site
- Exclusive Rates
- High EPC (earnings per click)
- Past Performance
We all know that 2020 has been anything but a normal year, so we also asked publishers what new verticals and products they’ll be covering this year, the top responses were:
- Technology
- Working from Home products and services
- Health and Wellbeing
- Online gifting
Speak to your Skimlinks Account Manager or reach out to our Account Specialist team now to:
- Provide early access to deals and offers. We have an NDA template you can use.
- Increase your rates and provide Exclusive Rates to Premium Publishers, you can find out more details here
- Facilitate Flat Fee deals to guarantee content during the holiday season, minimum spend limits apply
For more information on the survey results by market, download the pdfs below.
US Merchant Holiday Season 2020
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