San Francisco – Delivery Agent, a developer of interactive TV shopping systems, said Monday that a new television-commerce (t-commerce) application for ShopTV soon will be active on select Samsung Smart TVs.
In the process, Samsung will become the first consumer electronics company to deploy comprehensive t-commerce for the television, Delivery Agent claimed.
The ShopTV t-commerce application, which was pre-loaded in 2012 and 2013 Samsung Smart TVs, allows TV viewers to shop for products seen in network TV programs and advertising via their remote controls.
Viewers can use their remotes to shop 24/7 by network, show, or brand, the company said.
Delivery Agent’s t-commerce platform powers the system, which maps more than 1 million products to a network, show, episode, character, scene or ad and then makes those products available for sale across more than 500 shows, the company said.
“Over the last decade, attempts to bring t-commerce to the viewer have been hampered by technical, rights and scale issues,” stated Mike Fitzsimmons, Delivery Agent CEO. “As the market leader in driving Smart TV adoption, Samsung’s deployment brings critical mass and moves t-commerce from a concept to a business benefiting consumers, advertisers, networks and device manufacturers.”
In a second-phase launch planned for this year, Samsung Smart TV viewers will be able to opt-in to shop directly from television programming and advertising while simultaneously viewing, according to Delivery Agent.
In addition to completing transactions, the functionality will allow viewers to receive targeted offers or request additional information from programmers and advertisers through the TV remote.
“Consumers spend an average of 5-plus hours per day viewing television programming,” said Eric Anderson, Samsung Electronics America content and product solutions VP. “Our partnership with Delivery Agent allows us to offer Samsung Smart TV viewers an opt-in t-commerce experience tied to products contextually relevant to the programming they’re viewing. We believe it’s a powerful addition to the robust experience on Samsung Smart TVs.”
According to the U.S. Consumer T-Commerce Purchasing Report study cited by Delivery Agent, there is “a strong interest from consumers to engage with and shop for products directly from the TV screen. Highlights from the report include: 68 percent of respondents were interested or very interested in using their TV to shop; 82 percent were interested in purchasing products seen in or tied to their favorite shows and 76 percent were interested in purchasing products or services directly from the commercials.
Parks Associates estimates that of the 136 million TV households in North America projected in 2013, Smart TV homes will be present in 32 million, or 23 percent. By 2017, more than half (53 percent) of TV households will own a Smart TV.
Delivery Agent said the ShopTV application and marketplace will also be available to consumers who want to shop their favorite TV shows via the web or mobile devices at www.shopthetv.com
