The future of "contextualized commerce" in magazines

The president of Dwell Media and publisher of Dwell magazine, Michela O'Connor, enthuses about the joys of "contextualized commerce", which means that the recent special "fully shoppable" online issue of the magazine will likely become the norm.

Over the past two years, Dwell has experimented with different e-commerce models through partnerships with OpenSky and Gilt. Those initiatives have come and gone as Dwell searched for a deeper, more integrated shopping experience for its audience.

“Flash sales were fine when they first came on the scene, but that model is fatiguing,” O'Connor Abrams said in a phone interview. “We’ve been looking at the best way to utilize our content in the commerce world, and our firm belief is that contextualized commerce is the future.”

There has been a rush of enthusiasm recently for what is called the "integration" of ads and editorial -- but, of course, without compromising editorial integrity [wink] -- using terms such as "native advertising" (what we used to call "advertorial") and, now, "contextualized commerce" (what we used to call a catalogue).

Dwell was launched in September 2000 and has a total circulation of 331,000.