Television has not traditionally been a seamless way to buy goods, but eBay is looking to change all that. ‘Watch with eBay’ is a new app that lets users buy items related to the program they’re currently viewing.
“The idea is to provide a new form of TV watching entertainment that includes the possibility of shopping and discovering interesting products people never would have discovered otherwise,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile at eBay. “We’ve seen that guys sitting around watching a sporting event will buy jerseys for the team they like. And normally when you’re sitting around watching a sporting event on TV, you’re not really thinking about being in shopping mode. But that’s because no one presented it to you in a frictionless and pleasing way.”
Eighty-six percent of smartphone and tablet owners will use the devices while watching television, with a quarter searching for info from the show. “There’s already a natural thing happening where people are using their device like a companion to TV watching,” explained Yankovich.
While it doesn’t allow users to purchase particular items from particular shows, that could change if content providers tag video frames with those items. “It will get down to actual product. It could literally be the brand name of clothing that each person is wearing in the scene, including the actual stock-keeping unit (SKU) for the piece of clothing,” said Yankovich.
Yankovich said the app will provide recommendations based on shopping interests, with items related to the current watched show being featured. “We will be your personal shopper paying attention so you don’t have to. You just lean back, watch TV and we show you stuff you care about on the app,” Yankovich said.
Source: Reuters
