News Corp launches shopping portal through news.com.au
News Corp Australia is drilling ahead with its e-commerce offering, launching an expert product review site, news.com.au checkout, with the aim of targeting more high-intent shoppers.
Checkout has a dedicated team of around ten writers that curates reviews, recommendations, and information, to help shoppers make purchasing decisions.
News Corp said the offering is an Australian-first for publishers, but there are some similar examples overseas within the company’s stable, such as the NY Times’ Wirecutter, and also News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal’s Buy Side.
Adam Kron, News Corp Australia’s director of e-commerce, told Mumbrella that there’s one big difference between Checkout and your regular social media reviews, such as those on TikTok and Reddit.
“The news.com.au checkout editorial team are product review and shopping experts, solely focused on giving the best possible shopping advice, and undertake research and product testing when making the content.
“We are focused on helping consumers at the research stage of their shopping journey, meaning consumers that are actively looking for a recommendation in either search or directly on news.com.au checkout.
“Social users are often coming across product recommendations serendipitously, without active intent. While both channels service consumers with some overlap, news.com.au checkout is better geared for the active high-intent shopper.”
In the latest Ipsos Iris survey, news.com.au has remained the top online news site in the country, with 12.3 million Australians spending time on the site in July.
The unique advantage of that audience base is not lost on News Corp’s managing director of client product, Pippa Leary.
“For some time we’ve been consistently ahead of the curve in moving down the funnel and attracting high-intent audiences,” she said.
“For Australia’s consumer-facing businesses, news.com.au checkout is the best way to attract high intent, diverse audiences at scale in a trusted environment.”
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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