The future of shopping: T-commerce?

Television Commerce or T-commerce is a growing trend across the globe where consumers can instantly purchase products that appear on TV. Interactive live TV shopping is easy, simply point and click the remote to purchase a product.

Marketers are integrating e-commerce opportunities into TV content that allows interactive live TV shopping. It’s just another exciting way to connect with consumers through a multi-sensory touchpoint. T-commerce offers consumers a ‘One-Click’ purchasing opportunity, thereby enhancing the shopping experience through digital TV channels and regular TV ads.

Imagine watching your favourite program and you see a new smartphone, golf club or dress. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could just aim your remote at the TV, press one button and purchase it? The consumer has instant gratification, purchasing directly from their favourite TV shows.

B2B and B2C companies should take notice of t-commerce and how it will impact the industry. Smart TV ownership is growing steadily and is set to surpass 50% of homes globally by 2026. According to Strategy Analytics, shipments are expected to exceed 200 million units per year in 2022.

Less than two years ago, very few consumers could have envisioned themselves shopping online or on their smartphones. Mobile commerce sales have grown phenomenally over the past 10 years, from less than $25 billion in 2012 to an estimated $208 billion in 2018. According to eMarketer, m-commerce is to double its share of retail sales by 2025.

Proprietary home grown smart TV operating systems are steadily giving way to platforms developed by the world’s leading technology companies such as Google and Amazon whose expertise and experience in developing and supporting software platforms is helping to drive improved user experience and deeper consumer engagement.

Smart TVs are opening an entirely new channel for brands to provide another personalised shopping experience, especially considering that this device is still the biggest and most-watched screen in most homes. Companies need to evaluate t-commerce opportunities and develop strategies to make TV an end-to-end path to purchase.

According to Hulu research, consumers spend twice as much time engaging with a brand when their ads are interactive. Compared to standard advertisements, it says the purchase intent increases by 160%.  With  a lot of brand channel opportunities, it is clear that shoppers would purchase items directly from the TV if given the chance.

Live TV shopping offers retailers, brands, and digital platforms a new channel with enormous scope for creating value. They need to focus all their efforts on finding and serving a mobile audience on all devices including TVs. Early adopters stand to reap the greatest benefits from this emerging technology.

T-commerce is the future of shopping and marketers across the globe are already implementing strategies to engage with consumers on television. It’s now part of the omnichannel, another opportunity to give consumers what they want, when they want it.