The goal of TODAY's eCommerce work is to leverage the TODAY brand, talent and existing segments (both on air and online) to drive commerce revenue among our dedicated audience. A large project that we took on within our strategy was the creation of a large interactive gift guide. We aimed to drive revenue through affiliate relationships with Amazon and Skimlinks over the holiday period and to increase time spent on site, as well as improve brand awareness of TODAY as a shopping destination through a new shopping format that is both interactive and engaging.
First, we needed to build a space that was dedicated to commerce and start training our users to look to that space when they were interested in buying something that we'd written about or that they'd seen on air. So we created, today.com/shopping. Then, we worked hand-in-hand with the TODAY show broadcast to amplify the on-air promotion of products online and then build off that success and momentum. We also wanted to create a space for users to sift through gift ideas and so created the ultimate gift guilde where users can customize their gift selection by gender, age, interest and price range.
So far commerce has been a huge success and we are on pace to hit our aggressive goals for 2017. In 2018, we expect to increase revenue by over 400%. User trust is really what our brand is all about and they've to respect our editorial POV and stance on whether certain products are worth it. We've also seen success converting TV watchers online. Jill's Steals & Deals (biweekly deals segments with over 50% off or more) is almost a tentpole segment for TODAY commerce. As soon as the segment airs, we see an immediate spike in pageviews to the article online and subsequent purchases. And for the holiday gift guide, engagement rates and time spent is above average and revenue is already being generated, even though the guide was launched just in November.
