News Corp Australia has launched the first dedicated commerce content destination on a major news publishing site in Australia addressing shopping and consumer needs.
Managing director client product Pippa Leary said the news.com.au checkout would feature expert product reviews, recommendations and information to help shoppers make more confident shopping decisions, find the best deals and discover new savings.
“Importantly, this represents an Australian first, which puts News Corp Australia right in the front line of e-commerce by helping Australians make informed choices,” said Leary.
“This is a natural but innovative extension of our traditional role providing Australians with trusted information to help them in their daily lives.
“Australians love shopping online but what is changing is the increasing time they spend researching products and prices before they buy.
“According to the IAB Australia’s Australian Ecommerce Report 2023, six in 10 online shoppers (62 per cent) have increased the time they spend shopping around and researching since the recent rises in living costs.
“News.com.au checkout helps them navigate endless choices and make purchase decisions with confidence by being their credible and reliable shopping guide. It is literally where they get to check out the best deals and expert product reviews before they get to the checkout.”
Leary said the new brand was a clear demonstration of News Corp Australia’s e-commerce ambitions.
“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.
“This creates a branded destination for them and we’ve seen it work in the United States with NY Times’ Wirecutter, Buy Side from Wall Street Journal and CNN Underscored.
“Of course, the difference for news.com.au checkout is that it is uniquely accented towards Australian audiences and builds on news.com.au’s market-leading audience reach and engagement which consistently makes it the nation’s leading news site.”
News Corp Australia’s director of ecommerce, Adam Kron, said news.com.au checkout would help Australians cut through the dizzying array of choices and acres of information that can make shopping online a less-than-rewarding experience.
“We are helping our audience stay in the know, save time and make confident shopping decisions by bringing it all together in a trustworthy, reliable way to give consumers confidence their choices are good choices,” he said.
“Along with its own team of specialist writers, our exciting new shopping destination has its own shopping-focused navigation and search, making it even easier for consumers to discover great content and solve their shopping needs.
“Given our mass market demographic some of the more obvious categories we will specialise in will include consumer technology, home and living, health and wellness and beauty, sports and outdoor and of course, helping consumers find the latest sales and deals to save time and money.”
News.com.au director Alice Bradbury welcomed the site’s expansion.
“News.com.au is Australia’s number one news site – reaching one in two Australians every month,” she said. “Since the launch of our shopping section ‘Best Of’ three years ago, we have seen Australians’ increasing appetite for our leading shopping content including our expert reviews, product roundups, and the latest on the best ‘sales & deals’.
“We are excited to build on the success of ‘Best Of’ and launch news.com.au checkout with improved usability to drive an even better content and shopping experience for our audiences. From today news.com.au is leading the charge to be Australia’s number one shopping news site too.”
