Yahoo Shops: Not to Be Confused with Yahoo Stores

Yahoo is launching a new marketplace called Yahoo Shops that will feature 50 brands including Woo Skin Essentials by Projectwoo, Golden Secrets, and Act + Acre, with plans to grow to hundreds and then thousands of branded shops.

But don't confuse Yahoo Shops with Yahoo Stores, which is a store-hosting solution for individual merchants that has been around since the Dark Ages of the Internet.

In an article on Yahoo Finance, Yahoo said its its new Shops offering is different than the New York Times' Wirecutter content site that makes money through affiliate links in its product reviews.

Yahoo too has affiliate links in much of its content, "which guides customers to the likes of Amazon and Walmart to complete a sale." But Yahoo Shops will be its own marketplace managing the entire purchase journey from beginning to end, it explains.

The article explains how Yahoo Shops will work when it launches later this year:

"As for how the site will work, (Andrea Wasserman, head of global commerce at Verizon Media, which has owned Yahoo since 2017) explained that users will be able to directly purchase products featured in reviews, editorial roundups and shoppable video, while there will also be 3D try-ons. And later this year, Yahoo Shops will connect with a universal shopping cart across all of its platforms, from Engadget to Yahoo Sports."

What may be disappointing to online sellers is that there's no indication the Yahoo Shops marketplace will provide any visibility to Yahoo Stores.

Yahoo will make a big reveal at noon Eastern today at Yahoo.com/builditforward - let us know what you think!