Wirecutter and Google Shopping Partner to Help Procrastinating Gift Buyers

The New York Times’ affiliate brand Wirecutter is partnering with Google Shopping to help procrastinating shoppers find last-minute holiday gifts.

From Dec. 20 to Dec. 26, Google Shopping buttons will appear next to 150 curated Wirecutter products, according to Cliff Levy, the deputy publisher at The Athletic and Wirecutter. The buttons, overlaid with phrases like “Shop nearby with Google,” will point consumers toward local stores that have the products in stock.

When a user clicks the button, they are taken to the nearby results page on Google that displays offerings from merchants, which are listed based on their proximity to the shopper.

The integration was born out of the insight that, while Wirecutter sees an uptick in traffic right before Christmas, it can be difficult to ensure that online purchases will arrive before Christmas if bought too late, according to chief revenue officer Joy Robins.

“When we think about partnerships, we want it to be born out of an audience insight,” Robins said. “We know that after Dec. 20 it’s hard to order something online and have it delivered by Christmas. These buttons will allow people to find items near them so they can go get the gift in time.”

The partnership also entails an ad campaign, whose creative was designed by T Brand Studio. The ad campaign began in mid-November and will run through Dec. 26. Wirecutter began allowing advertising on its site this spring, and the collaboration with Google is its largest deal to date, according to Robins. 

The deal reflects the emerging value of Wirecutter as an advertising surface, as its high-intent audiences and shopping inventory effectively mimic the properties of a retail media network, according to Martech Record founder Michael McNerney.

The Times has slowly introduced advertising to its platforms since 2022, including The Athletic, Games, and now Wirecutter. These franchises offer news-averse advertisers an alternative way to reach The Times’ audience, as well as create endemic opportunities for brands whose products fit more naturally within lifestyle contexts.

Service over revenue

Through the Google partnership, Wirecutter readers can peruse the collection of gifts to find the perfect item, then purchase the product in-person. Items selected for the list are a mix of best-sellers and those most likely to be readily available, according to Levy.

The collaboration runs counter to the traditional logic governing affiliate marketing, in which publishers and their retail partners seek to convert shoppers on-site. Doing so allows publishers to prove that they delivered a sale directly from their content, which entitles them to a small cut of the resulting transaction.

In this case, if a Wirecutter reader uses the Google Shopping button to find a store where they can purchase an item in-person, neither the publisher nor the platform will generate any revenue from the transaction. 

Both parties still have plenty to gain from providing a useful recommendation, of course. Users’ on-site behavior, such as clicking the Google Shopping button, still gets captured and is valuable data to Wirecutter. Meanwhile Google reinforces the notion that its platform is the ultimate starting point for any shopping journey, according to Google’s senior director of global commerce marketing Stephanie Horton.

“This partnership with Wirecutter is one of many across our broader holiday shopping campaign,” Horton said, “which is all about showing how with Google, people can shop every store in one place to find the perfect gifts and deals.”

But the integration is rooted in a broader Wirecutter ethos, which prioritizes the needs of its audience over its own commercial imperatives, according to Levy. 

“There are a lot of things that Wirecutter does where we don’t make any money,” Levy said. “It’s service journalism. We want to be helpful to our audience.”

Of course, the advertising campaign subsidizes the loss of these potential earnings, which makes the altruism easier to justify on a balance sheet. The creative includes a Dear Google video series that tapped real consumers asking for gift-shopping advice, as well as custom crossword puzzles spotlighting Google Shopping.

It also benefits The Times to maintain a close relationship with Google, which plays a dominant role in the affiliate marketing landscape, according to Martech Record’s McNerney. In recent months, changes to the Google algorithm targeting affiliate sites have upended the billion-dollar industry.

Elsewhere, Wirecutter had its best Cyber Week in history, generating 33% more product clicks and 10% more pageviews per reader compared to last year, according to the company. It also saw a 3% year-over-year growth in search traffic.

“In a year where Google has decimated traffic for countless media brands big and small with seemingly arbitrary dictums,” McNerney said, “this partnership signals what they do approve of: independent reviews written by in-house journalists at an established media brand with the appropriate domain authority.”