Tie-ins Between eContent and eCommerce

Here's just one example:

Hearst’s Harper’s Bazaar introduced ShopBazaar, a website owned by the magazine that features merchandise from its print pages—part of the magazine’s broader effort to diversify revenue. It is a “true content-to-commerce venture”, an editorial site that allows readers to buy the products that Harper’s Bazaar editors have curated to fit their tastes and the brand’s identity.

Quoting from Pam Horan's (Online Publishers Association) Lean Back 2.0 article, Commerce through content. Horan adds

These innovative, editorial-minded approaches to e-commerce allow publishers to provide a convenient service to their loyal audience that enhances the overall user experience. One of the beauties of the digital age is instant-gratification: why simply mention quality products, when you can help your readers shop for them right from the page or website?

How long do you think it will be before our major vendors promote their wares to "enhance the overall user experience" because "that's what our customers want" by way of their search services? Imagine, for example, a message like this:

This source is blocked from your license but you can use your user account to acquire the title in print or eBook at {insert publication's direct link on vendor's eCommerce site].

See also No Business Model Required.

Might be wise to start drafting addendums now to add to your vendors' boilerplate search licenses when they come up for renewal if you don't want to be stuck picking up the tap. I'm already working on two:

1. Sales transactions based on user accounts will not paid without prior authorization from [insert title or name of institutional buyer's license contact] because user accounts are solely for the purpose of performing research; and
2. Contact from the vendor to any and all users based on information provided for user account establishment is strictly prohibited. This includes but is not limited to contacting any user for sales promotions, sending unsolicited research tips and instructions, and follow-ups after a user views a vendor-hosted "how-to" video.

Too extreme? If "[o]ne of the beauties of the digital age is instant-gratification," I don't think so. [JH]