Roku Introduces Shoppable Ads that Allow Viewers to Purchase Products with Remote
As streaming becomes more and more focused on ad-supported opportunities, it was only a matter of time before video providers made those advertisements interactive. On Tuesday, Roku, the largest streaming platform in the United States, announced that it was launching a partnership with e-commerce giant Shopify to allow viewers to purchase products from Shopify merchants directly from their TV screens using only their remote controls.
When you see a Roku Action Ad from a company that is on the Shopify platform, if you want more details or to buy the product, all you need to do is click “OK” on your remote to pull up the purchasing information. Then, once you’re ready, you can complete the purchase using Roku’s built-in payment platform Roku Pay. After the purchase is finalized, you will receive an email with all of the details and be brought back to whatever show or movie you were streaming.
(Click on the images to see more of the purchasing process.)
“Bringing a Shopify purchase experience to television for merchants is an industry first, and innovation opportunities like these are precisely the reason I came to Roku,” Roku’s senior director of ad innovation Peter Hamilton said. “Roku democratizes access to TV advertising, and now, we’re collapsing the funnel for Shopify’s merchants. This is a great example of Roku’s unique platform position to make advertisers unmissable across the streamer’s journey, from power on to purchase complete.”
Men’s apparel brand True Classic, game-based connected rower Ergatta, and wellness brand Olly are the initial Shopify partners to be featured on Roku Action Ads. In the past, these types of streaming commercials allowed customers to request a text message with more information or scan a QR code, but by integrating the ability to purchase products, Roku and Shopify are hoping to provide both customers and brands with a better experience.
“Shopify is on a mission to make commerce better for everyone,” Shopify’s director of product and checkout Mani Fazeli said, “and by partnering with Roku to make Shopify Checkout available through new channels, we are making it easier for more brands to drive deeper engagement with shoppers and reach new audiences.”
Roku is not the first streamer to experiment with unique ad formats. Last spring, both Peacock and Prime Video began employing different types of virtual product placements in shows and movies and more recently, Prime Video began placing QR codes on the screen when viewers paused episodes of “Citadel” that led them to dedicated shopping pages on Amazon.
The very nature of streaming allows companies to make ads far more interactive and — more importantly — actionable than they ever could have been on traditional TV. As Roku is hoping to prove, advertising campaigns can now be more than just brand awareness efforts. The technology involved in streaming provides an ever-increasing array of opportunities to not only promote products but also to encourage customers to purchase immediately.
These types of ads were always an inevitability and will likely become far more common as free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) and ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) platforms become more prevalent across the industry.
Roku Channel
The Roku Channel is a free live TV streaming service that provides 350+ live linear streaming channels and more than 80,000 free movies and TV shows. The library contains entertainment from several different decades, including some major hits.