Can tablet commerce help publishers break free of the magazine paradigm?

emedia/vitals reporting:
As media companies plot out their tablet publishing strategies, support for online shopping must be front and center in their thinking. The promising future of “couch commerce,” driven by the tablet’s rising status as an at-home, lean-back leisure device, should grab the attention of media companies looking to expand their digital business models.
Publishers of any size, in any sector, from consumer fashion to heavy equipment, have an opportunity to create compelling, multichannel e-commerce offerings – if they’re willing to experiment with models that may blur traditional editorial/advertising lines.
Think about the impact that tablets, barely two years old, are already having on e-commerce:

• In the second quarter, tablets accounted for more than 7% of the traffic to e-commerce websites monitored by commerce platform provider Monetate – up from 2% just a year ago. Conversion rates from tablet shoppers (3.17%) are on par with PC-based buyers (3.34%) and more than double that of smartphone shoppers (1.09%), according to Monetate’s latest Ecommerce Quarterly report.
• comScore says 39% of tablet owners purchased items in the past month, compared with 18% of smartphone owners. Tablet owners appear more engaged as well: 43% have researched items and 42% have compared product prices in the past month, compared to 21% and 22%, respectively, for smartphones.
• Earlier this year, Adobe released a report showing that tablet owners spent more on average per online order ($123) than PC ($102) or smartphone ($80) shoppers in 2011.

These trends should be a light bulb moment for publishers trying to re-think the traditional magazine bundle for digital devices. We’re already seeing signs that the existing iPad publishing model has flaws, and may force publishers to get more creative with the way they package content and the enhancements they can offer through tablet apps or tablet-optimized websites.
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