'Real Simple’ Gets Into Direct Sales With Gift Guide App

Mashable reporting: Real Simple magazine is making its first foray into mobile commerce with the launch of a gift guide app for iPhones Tuesday.
The app is fairly standard as far as gift guides go, featuring 50 Mother’s Day gifts selected by the magazine’s editorial team. In keeping with Real Simple‘s budget-conscious audience, no item is priced above $50. Next month, the title will add gifts deemed suitable for Father’s Day and graduation.
Where the app deviates from your standard, one-off magazine app is in its shopping capabilities. Rather than sending users to third-party retail sites, the magazine partnered with DropWallet to enable users to purchase any of the items directly within the app. Real Simple receives an (undisclosed) cut of each sale, managing editor Kathleen Harris tells Mashable, which is stated in a disclaimer in the app.
Shannon King, general manager of realsimple.com, says the gift guide could be the beginning of a new revenue stream for the magazine and parent company Time Inc. Should it prove successful, the team plans to look into adding shopping capabilities to its other offerings: namely, the iPad edition of Real Simple and its website.
The app also marks an opportunity, says Harris, to provide a service to Real Simple‘s audience. Allowing direct purchase saves readers the effort of hunting down products.
http://mashable.com/2012/04/17/real-simple-mcommerc/