Explainer
What a shopping editor actually does
People assume a shopping editor is paid to like things. The work is closer to the opposite, and that difference is the whole job.
The job
The short answer
A shopping editor decides which products are worth a reader’s money and then proves it in writing. That means sourcing the product, testing it against the claims on the box, comparing it with the obvious alternatives, and publishing a verdict that survives a year of readers buying it on your say-so.
It is a commerce job and an editorial job at once. The commerce side is measured in revenue per session, conversion and return rate. The editorial side is measured in whether anyone believes you the second time.
Testing
What tested means
At a title with standards, tested means the product was in the building. At Better Homes & Gardens the stories I edited were lab-tested, which means a controlled protocol, a scoring rubric and a record anyone can audit. At Reviewed it meant the same thing with a photographer present.
Where a story is not tested, it should say so and explain what it is instead: a roundup, an edit, a first look. A reader can work with any of those. What a reader cannot work with is a list that implies testing and is actually a search of a retailer’s bestsellers.
Money
How a shopping editor gets paid
Most commerce editorial runs on affiliate commission. The publisher places a tracked link, the retailer pays a percentage of what readers buy, and that revenue funds the desk. Rates vary from about one percent to around twenty, depending on category and network.
The thing readers should understand is that commission rewards the sale, and most networks take it back only if the product is returned. A desk that chases commission alone will push whatever converts today. A desk run properly treats the return rate as the real score, because a reader who sends something back does not come back.
Disclosure is not optional. If a link earns money, the page says so in plain language, close to the links themselves.
For readers
How to read a shopping story
Look for a named writer and a date. Look for a sentence that says what the writer did with the product. Look for at least one thing the writer did not like. Look for a disclosure. A story missing all four is an advertisement that has not said so.