Connected TV: New Verizon FiOS App
- Nearly four million US Verizon FiOS Internet/phone/TV customers will be able to make purchases using their TV through the A&E’s History Channel (other channels and networks will be added later).
- Contextualised products will be accessible through an icon in the upper right corner of the screen. The customer will only have to press the dedicated entry on his remote to check on the offer.
- Once his account created on TVWallet.com, he simply specifies his phone number and PIN code for transaction validation.
- According to A&E, “if 5% of the people who see the new feature make a purchase, that would be considered an initial success”. A prior audience study made it possible to define the very first targets: men ages 25 to 54. For now, the collected data should not be shared with announcers.
- Initial trials have shown that the value of the average order placed by viewers was 75 dollars. According to Verizon, if extrapolated, this “could mean 285 million dollars in revenue in the first year if all FiOS households made one purchase during that time”.
- Multi-channel-based initiatives are currently in progress and this solution asserts the interest of TV and telecom operators in the issue of connected TV. Impulsive purchases could be boosted through making the customer process easier and offering the user the possibility to gain direct access to products. This concept is now being studied by several players, including MasterCard and Microsoft with QkR for example (see September 2011 Insight).
- This trend should also benefit to the surge of the so-called “couch commerce”, already helped by the users’ craze for Smartphones and tablets. According to studies conducted by comScore and IBM, these devices are especially favourable to the development of distant purchases.
- The evolving offers of TV and telecom operators –now trying to encompass all sorts of media (TVs, computers, Smartphones, tablets)– should also contribute to this new genre of retail distribution –or even allow for its adaptation to mobile contexts.