by Alexandra Stark
Mobile apps provide a connection between content printed on a page and what’s available online, such as direct access to buy a featured product. However, certain items and magazines are much more receptive to this impulse shopping than others.
The many different forms of interactive print – from watermarks and QR codes to image recognition technology – allows digital developers to easily take products from a magazine page and direct users to buy them instantly online. After a magazine hits newsstands, new content matcher “Magnetique” takes images of each page, makes the page scannable using their mobile app, and provides links on where to find certain products online. They are not associated with the magazines. Most recently they activated the September issue of Glamour, which you can read more about here.
While seamless print-to-e-commerce interactions are an essential next step in magazines, they do not necessarily apply to all categories of content. It must be considered whether the product is being targeted as an impulse purchase or one that needs to be researched further – usually dependent on price point and availability.