Lucky magazine will be offering its readers the ability to buy merchandise advertised in the magazine by text message. The "Live Buy It" program will use PayPal Mobile Text2Buy to allow readers to make purchases using their PayPal mobile accounts and a text message containing the product's code word.

Shopping by cell phones is already a developed practice in Japan and Lucky, which itself is based off of a Japanese shopping magazine, decided to bring the idea to the United States. The "Live Buy It" program will be introduced in Lucky's July issue and fully implemented by the September issue. The merchandise will also be available online at livebuyit.com.

The program is considered to be a sign of the growth of interest in mobile marketing. RBC Capital Markets predicts U.S. cell phone marketing could grow from $50 million last year to $1.5 billion by 2010.

"Lucky is a magazine about getting your hands on the stuff and enjoying what's exciting right now," says Lucky's New York Vice President and Publisher Alexandra W. Golinkin. "How apt to the DNA of Lucky is it to have one of our programs be devoted to the future of commerce?"

Retailers offering products in the program include Liz Claiborne, Estée Lauder, Target and Sephora. Another advertiser, Ford Motor Company, is modifying the "text to buy" program to "donate to buy" for their tote bags, the proceeds of which will go to the Ford Race for the Cure program benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.