Fees are being waived to help retailers crushed by pandemic

With many retailers forced to close their doors because of the Coronavirus pandemic, NBCUniversal is introducing a new e-commerce product that is designed to make it easier to turn viewers into customers.

NBCUniversal Checkout, an extension of NBCU’s Shoppable TV, lets businesses, whether they’re local, national or direct-to-consumer, open a store that can reach nearly all Americans on any piece of content. When viewers see a product they want, they can click on it and buy it without leaving the NBC environment..

“It’s an embeddable cart that can turn any web article or video into a native shoppable experience,” said Josh Fedlman executive VP, marketing and advertising creative, at NBCU.

Feldman added that Shoppable TV will enable NBCU to work with businesses that are not necessarily national TV advertisers, but want to build relationships with fans of NBCU shows, including that fast-growing class of DTC marketers.

“Once you’re a customer of NBCUniversal, you’re a customer of NBCUniversal,” he said. “We’re happy to work with any brand out there that wants to work with us.”

Production of custom content to promote the goods available is produced by NBCU’s Creative Partnership team, which can help retailesr create, build and distribute marketing assets.

NBCU moved up the launch of Checkout because of the effect the virus was having on retailers. From now until the end of the year, NBCU is waiving technology fees and cart fees on Shoppable TV and digital branded content experiences.

NBCU Checkout works with Shoppable Branded Content, making it a clickable hotspot; Shappable TV, which carries a code-like a barcode--that can be scanned with a mobile phone and send the goods to a universal cart; Shoppable Editorial Content such as fashion and bargain segments on NBC and Telemundo, and social applications.

NBCU handles the front end of the electronic storefronts. It takes information in, but the retailer handles the fulfillment. NBCU gets information about the customer, but the relationship is owned by the retailer.

Feldman said working with NBCU Checkout is better than affiliate sales because it’s much clearer how customers came to the retailer, reducing the number of people the retailer needs to pay each time it sells something.

NBCU can use information about Checkout customers to target them with other advertising and sales messages.

Feldman said in normal times, retailers would pay NBCU for creating branded content, and when it’s used for shopping, NBCU would get a percentage of cart revenue.

NBCU is open to have conversations with retailers bout Checkout now. It will be ready to integrate retailers next month and Feldman expects it to be live in June. creates branded content for a retailer, No one has signed up yet, “but we are in active conversations right now,” he said.

“We think that by opening this up at this point in time, when stores are closed, we can let ourr passionate fan base go shopping, Feldman said. “They're ready to get back to what this new normal is and eCommerce and direct-to-consumer is a huge part of that and we want to be there to help our Retail Partners as much as we can.”