Time to dive into part two in our blog series Future media trends; Shopvertising.

Shopvertising is a collected concept used to describe how the boundaries between advertising and sales are being blurred. This trend is probably driven by several different factors such as increased mobile shopping, AR and VR technology and higher demands from consumers for more seamless and consumer friendly ways of buying goods and services.

How is shopvertising being used?

The leading market for shopvertising is no surprise China, where they for several years have had an integrated shopping solution in their WeChat app, to which you can connect all of your social media. All advertising, no matter text or video, can be linked to your WeChat store which allows customers to shop directly from the ad without leaving the app. The closest we have come to this in Sweden are Facebook dynamic ads and Instagram shoppable ads.

In South Korea they have taken it even further with shopvertising through television connected to an AR solution. You use an app in your phone and hold it up towards the TV ads to get a 3D AR version of the product in your phone. You can then view the product from different angles or see how it would fit in your home, of course with the possibility to buy it directly through the app. In Sweden, IKEA has created a similar AR solution for their furniture but has not yet connected their technology with direct purchasing or advertisement.

Another technique used for shopvertising is QR-codes which are scanned to get to a direct purchase from outdoor advertisements or even from TV-ads. Summarizing the trends, shopvertising is evolving from shoppable social to shoppable advertising all around us.

What does this mean for advertisers and media owners?

The most common model for this type of format is that part of the revenue goes to the platform, which means that shopvertising could increase the revenue for media- and site owners. Most likely, e-retailers, social media platforms, online channels and even other media will race to take the lead around these new revenue opportunities. We therefore believe that shopvertising is something we will see a lot more of in the next few years.

What is next? We are very excited to watch the development of audio, but that’s a trend we’ll cover next time.