Shoppable TV and The Future of Consumer Spending

Author

Ofodile Iloanya
September 29, 2023

Article Snapshot

  • The Power of TV Commercials: TV commercials have the ability to entertain, inform, and persuade viewers to purchase products or services. They serve as a creative platform for brands to capture consumer attention in a competitive media landscape.

  • Shoppable TV's Emergence: Shoppable TV is a technology-driven concept that allows viewers to make instant purchases while watching TV shows or commercials.

  • Effectiveness and Future Potential: Shoppable TV has shown promise in terms of engagement and conversion rates. Notably, Coinbase's Super Bowl ad, which offered Bitcoin via a QR code, led to significant site visits. While engagement with Shoppable TV ads is high, it still lags behind shoppable social media ads.

In just a few seconds or minutes, TV commercials have the power to entertain, inform, and persuade people to buy products/services. They are the creative canvas on which companies and brands craft narratives, vying for consumers’ attention in a crowded media landscape. Despite this, businesses traditionally relied on consumers dialling a phone number or remembering a URL in order to buy their products or services in the future. However, technological advancements have led to the rise in ‘Shoppable TV’ to increase the ROI from TV adverts.

What is Shoppable TV?

Imagine you are watching your favourite TV show and a commercial showcases trendy fashion items, rather than the brand telling you to call a certain number, a QR code appears and all you have to do is scan it with your phone and you are instantly taken to the website to complete your purchase. Or imagine you are watching your favourite Netflix show and a popup appears inviting you to ‘buy now’ some merchandise. This is the foundation of Shoppable TV- the process of instantly purchasing items from the comfort of your couch. But QR codes are just phase one of Shoppable TV, as leading industry players are looking at a more innovative and seamless future.

How Effective Has Shoppable TV Been So Far?

The most high-profile success story was undoubtedly Coinbase’s advert during the Superbowl. The advert simply offered viewers $15 in bitcoin if they followed the QR code and signed up to their platform. This 60-second ad led to 20 million site visits. Research reveals that 50% of adults recall seeing a shoppable TV ad, 40% of viewers engage with such ads and 70% of those eventually by the product in the future. However, engagement with shoppable TV ads is significantly lower than engagement with shoppable social media ads (61%).

The Future of Shoppable TV

It appears that although QR codes are the easiest technology in the Shoppable TV space, the remote control will be more widely used in the near future. In fact, Roku & Shopify recently announced that Roku viewers will be able to buy products from Shopify merchants by simply clicking OK when an ad appears on the streaming platform subsequently completing their purchase online. Furthermore, Kantar also suggests that image recognition and voice commands may be used to facilitate the buying process in the future.

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