ITV launches online shopping tool in scramble to replace lose advertising sales

ITV has launched an online shopping tool as it attempts to recover revenues lost by a decline in traditional advertising sales.

The broadcaster has released a discount code service for online shoppers that will automatically add cost-saving promotions when making internet purchases.

ITV will earn commissions when shoppers use the tool, called Kerching, which is available as a downloadable web browser extension.

It offers the company a new revenue stream as its traditional source of income slumps. ITV has been forced to cut hundreds of jobs after a sharp decline in advertising. Chief executive Carolyn McCall last year dubbed it the “‘worst advertising recession since the financial crisis”, though digital incomes have since begun to recover.

With Kerching, ITV is seeking to capitalise on increasingly cost-conscious consumers. It said research showed the most common reason shoppers fail to use discount codes on online purchases was because they did not know how to find them.

The Kerching tool is powered by the technology company Kindred, which ITV is also taking a stake in.

ITV said it was investing up to £8.5m in advertising space, rather than cash, for a minority stake in Kindred, which has worked with retailers such as O2 and Samsung.

The tool automatically offers discount codes when users reach online checkouts, with the code provider also receiving a small commission on sales.

Many online retailers have embraced technology that automatically applies discounts to items. Although the codes cut the price that shoppers pay, they are seen as helping to encourage sales as well as preventing shoppers from manually scouring the web to find discount codes, which often leads them to abandon purchases.

ITV said that four fifths of shoppers already use discount codes and that a third said their use of them had increased in the last year.

The company has already attempted to position itself as a consumer champion with its long-running money show hosted by Martin Lewis, the MoneySavingExpert founder.

Kelly Williams, ITV’s commercial head, said: “ITV has a long history of championing personal finance and consumer affairs through our programming and the launch of ITV Kerching is brilliant news for our viewers.

“We know that consumers are making more of an effort to save money wherever they can, and this is a really smart bit of tech which scours the internet for eligible discounts and codes and presents them to customers on the sites where they shop.”

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