News Corp launches dedicated online shopping portal with news.com.au ‘checkout’

News Corp Australia has become the first major news publisher in Australia to launch a dedicated online shopping and consumer content site.

News Corp Australia has launched a dedicated online shopping and consumer content site.

News Corp Australia has become the first major news publisher in Australia to launch a dedicated online shopping and consumer content site, leveraging its highly popular news.com.au brand to attract shoppers looking for trusted advice and recommendations on everyday products.

The new shopping content hub, called “news.com.au checkout”, will feature expert product reviews, recommendations and information to help shoppers make more confident shopping decisions, find the best deals and discover new savings.

Some of the key shopping categories news.com.au “checkout” will specialise in include consumer technology, home, beauty and sports with a focus on helping consumers to save time and make confident shopping decisions.

With the internet and social media platforms awash in shopping recommendations and reviews – many of which are highly dubious, untrustworthy or unreliable – News Corp believes that the confidence of readers and consumers in its news.com.au banner will transfer to the new shopping portal.

News.com.au, which has an audience of 11.648 million and reaches one in two Australians every month, is the first major local media banner to unveil a shopping website.

It follows the successful launches of similar sites in the US, such as Buy Side from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times’ Wirecutter, and CNN’s Underscored.

News Corp Australia managing director, client product, Pippa Leary.

Pippa Leary, managing director, client product, at News Corp Australia, said the news.com.au checkout represented an Australian first, which put News Corp Australia in the front line of e-commerce by helping consumers make informed choices.

“This is a natural but innovative extension of our traditional role providing Australians with trusted information to help them in their daily lives,” Ms Leary said.

“Australians love shopping online but what is changing is the increasing time they spend researching products and prices before they buy.

“News.com.au checkout helps them navigate endless choices and make purchase decisions with confidence by being their credible and reliable shopping guide.

“It is literally where they get to check out the best deals and expert product reviews before they get to the checkout.”

She said the new shopping destination for consumers would help people navigate through all the “clutter” on the internet.

“We all saw during Covid-19 this explosion of online shopping, we saw the explosion of online marketplaces, and actually what was created was tonnes of clutter or what some people call the ‘endless aisle’.

“So it has created the need for trusted environments to extend into commentary on shopping in terms of product reviews, guides, head-to-head comparisons on products – but it had to be from trusted sources.”

For the last three years News Corp has operated a shopping recommendation and reviews website called “Best Of”, which has grown to become the biggest source of affiliate links to retailers in Australia. Now these reviews have been gathered up and given their own banner and search platform under the news.com.au checkout online brand.

News Corp Australia’s director of e-commerce, Adam Kron, said news.com.au checkout would help Australians cut through the dizzying array of choices and acres of information which can make shopping online a less-than-rewarding experience.

“We are helping our audience stay in the know, save time and make confident shopping decisions by bringing it all together in a trustworthy, reliable way to give consumers confidence their choices are good choices,” he said. “Given our mass market demographic some of the more obvious categories we will specialise in will include consumer technology, home and living, health and wellness and beauty, sports and outdoor and, of course, helping consumers find the latest sales and deals to save time and money.”

News.com.au director Alice Bradbury said since the launch of Best Of three years ago, the media publisher had seen Australians’ increasing appetite for leading shopping content including expert reviews, product roundups, and the latest on the best “sales and deals”.

“We are excited to build on the success of Best Of and launch news.com.au checkout with improved usability to drive an even better content and shopping experience for our audiences. From today news.com.au is leading the charge to be Australia’s number one shopping news site too.”

News Corp Australia is the owner of The Australian