Whitepaper: Contextual Commerce – Revolution or Gimmick?
How buy buttons influence the e-commerce market

London/ New York, 16.03.2016 – “If content is king, context is god.” This online marketing mantra has been floating around the web for a while now. It is a growing trend to offer users the option to purchase products they come across while browsing social media networks directly via the respective platform. In the U.S., so-called “buyable pins” or buy buttons, which enable users to complete a purchase without being redirected to an external shop website, can already be found on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Now the concept is preparing to take the next step: contextual commerce. For this, PayPal has been testing a new service called “PayPal Commerce” since February. The service allows the integration of buy buttons anywhere, such as in e-mails, blogs or apps. PayPal Commerce relies on a collection of interfaces to third-party suppliers (APIs) based on which retailers can choose where to display their buy buttons. The purchase and transaction process remains in the direct surrounding of the respective environment.

But are users ready for this step? According to the Statista Digital Market Outlook, 63% of global e-commerce consumers tend to research their purchases thoroughly in advance, impulse purchases only make up 10% of all transactions. Given that buy buttons are basically the equivalent to impulse purchase products placed near the checkout aisles in supermarkets, it is reasonable to assume that products at low prices and requiring little research effort will profit the most from this innovation.

A more detailed analysis of the new chances the concept offers but also the challenges it may create for retailers as well as information on legal conditions can be found in the latest Statista Digital Market Outlook Whitepaper “Contextual Commerce: Revolution or Gimmick?”.

You can download the Statista Digital Market Outlook Whitepaper “Contextual Commerce: Revolution or Gimmick?” for free here: Contextual Commerce Whitepaper