We chat with Nilla Ali, the Senior Vice President of Commerce at BuzzFeed.
 

Can content and commerce coexist within a platform? How does the shift into shopping digitally affect the way that retailers and advertisers reach to consumers?

CONTENT AND COMMERCE

• There has been an Increase in traffic and consumption on BuzzFeed during COVID-19.
• BuzzFeed Shopping has been introduced, a native checkout feature on BuzzFeed which optimizes a consumer’s experience and increases revenue for featured products.
• Creating content drives discovery and can enhance partnerships with retailers, providing an ease-of-use experience for consumers to get products through retailers.
• Because of commerce switching to primarily digital, content will start playing a huge role in those experiences. Content and commerce coming closer together is a natural progression.

INTEGRITY AND CONSUMER TRUST

• BuzzFeed Shopping has a self-regulating business model that is mutually beneficial to all parties.
• BuzzFeed has to understand their consumer well enough to recommend products and create an ease of use system for the consumer to use.
• Editorial integrity wouldn’t be skewed because BuzzFeed Shopping is enhancing what they’re already doing  - it’s not a threat or competition to retailers, but a way to coexist, to bring content and commerce closer together.
• BuzzFeed shopping is ‘employing the highest levels of integrity’ to prove trust with consumers. Providing customers not only with products to buy, but also with resources and details to aid them in making a good decision.
   

LINKS

• Nilla Ali’s last appearance on Future Commerce, Episode 144: "Affiliate Is A Very Tricky Word"
• WSJ - “Buzzfeed Starts Selling Products Directly to Consumers”