3 minute read
Out the Box
by 55 North
TV shopping
Walmart aims to make shopping through TV remotes a reality.
US retail giant Walmart has teamedup with streaming service Roku totry to enable streamers to purchaseproducts in TV ads straight fromthe comfort of their couches.
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?
Remember Teletext? For the Millennials and Gen-Zers in the audience, back in the distant ‘90s people were able to access all kinds of information on their TV screens, from news to package holiday deals. With the advent of the world wide web, Teletext slowly came to an end, but retailers have always tried to solve this particular conundrum: how to let viewers buy the product they are watching an ad for in real time.
Now Walmart is trying to make that a reality; the partnership with Roku hopes to “change the way customers interact and shop TV and video content”.
HOW WILL IT WORK?
The pilot programme will let viewers simply press ‘OK’ with the remote on a shoppable ad and proceed to checkout with their payment details easily pre-populated from the Roku Pay payments platform. From there, tapping ‘OK’ on the Walmart checkout page places the order.
A Walmart purchase confirmation is then emailed with shipping, return, and support information. OneView, Roku’s ad-buying platform for TV streaming, will have the exclusive capability to activate and measure these shoppable ads.
Marketers will also be able to use Roku Brand Studio to design custom creative and branded content for TV streaming and shopping.
“No one has cracked the code around video shoppability,” William White, Chief Marketing Officer for Walmart, said. “By working with Roku, we’re the first-to-market retailer to bring customers a new shoppable experience and seamless checkout on the largest screen in their homes – their TV.”
WHAT TOOK SO LONG?
Despite TV shopping having been incredibly popular a few decades ago, people slowly moved away from spending too much time watching TV, owing to the popularity of smartphones, tablets and computers.Since then, companies tried a few innovations including QR codes displaying on screen, but none of them took off.
WHY IS THIS DIFFERENT?
The key component of this pilot programme is the remote control. Companies already know that viewers get distracted by phones and other devices; the remote control, however, is still pivotal to watching. With Roku being a paid-for streaming service, a lot of the information retailers would need is already in there, i.e. a payment method or a delivery address. So, in theory purchasing becomes simple and, hopefully for Walmart, effective.
ANY LAST WORDS?
“We’re making shopping on TV as easy as it is on social,” said Peter Hamilton, Head of TV Commerce, Roku. “For years, streamers have purchased new Roku devices and signed up for millions of subscriptions with their Roku remote. Streaming commerce brings that same ease and convenience to marketers and shoppers.”
