Commentary

CES: Cars, TVs and Spreading the Buy Around

Some commerce may be completed on a smartphone or tablet although the sale may start elsewhere.

This became apparent through several announcements at CES International in Las Vegas.

Consumers will be seeing more apps in their Chevy dashboards, as we wrote about yesterday  (CES & the Connected Car for Commerce), from which they ultimately will likely be able to start a purchase. The actual sale may take place later as the information is sent to the driver’s smartphone

Also at CES this week, Fandango announced a new service offering movie trailers with fully embedded ticketing capabilities on Samsung Smart TVs.

Consumers will be able to watch the movie trailer on an app on the TV and instantly purchase movie tickets for movies.

At one of the TV sections at the rather massive Samsung booth at CES I got a demo of yet another purchasing process that starts on the TV but can be completed via mobile device.

At the Super Bowl, H&M will be running a commercial with an automated purchase option essentially embedded in the 30-second spot.

Samsung showed me an additional way to use the TV-to-smartphone purchasing option now. In addition to numerous other apps on Samsung TVs, there’s one specifically for shopping, where the Beckman product line is promoted.

A click on the spot triggered a purchase option and when my mobile phone number was entered on the TV screen, I received an instant SMS message with a link to complete the purchase.

What strikes me here is that the triggering of a purchase is starting to be spread around, whether via TV, or car or traditional means.

Key is that the consumer is starting to see a product and the path to purchase is being spread around.  They can buy on the spot or defer to later.

And for that later transaction, they may not be in their car or in front of their TV but no doubt, they will have with them their mobile device.
5 comments about "CES: Cars, TVs and Spreading the Buy Around ".
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  1. Chris Westerkamp from Active Youth Network, January 8, 2014 at 11:06 a.m.

    Fandango can deliver a trailer and sell a ticket, but it can't improve the movie going experience which is dismal at best. Endless commercials and previews and stupid trivia. Not to mention the $300 an ounce popcorn! Also, do we need more distractions while we're driving?

  2. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, January 8, 2014 at 11:27 a.m.

    Buying buying buying. One thing is to buy, another to pay for it. Just like no matter how many restaurants open, you are only going to eat one dinner per night and that is becoming harder. More devices and more ways to buy does not make stuff more payable. Caveats.

  3. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin, January 8, 2014 at 1:14 p.m.

    Thanks for your comment, Chris and good point that Fandango can only take the entire movie experience so far, since the rest is out of their hands.

  4. Serena Ehrlich from Business Wire, January 8, 2014 at 5:10 p.m.

    Chuck, this is great, I am very interested in hearing more about Samsung's TV to Smartphone transaction capabilities. THAT is incredibly interesting and could be a massive game changer for the right products. I could see this easily being implemented on reality shows like Real Housewives allowing users to click to buy clothing, jewelry or more.

  5. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin, January 8, 2014 at 5:17 p.m.

    Right, Serena and I did see the thing work in real time, with a to-buy SMS directly to my phone from the TV action. Stay tuned!

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