Cross Platform User Interfaces to See One in Four Shopping Online Using their TV

While the inevitable rise of shopping online means that most of us will have bought something via the Internet at one stage or another, many industry experts are now predicting that by the end of 2014 as many as one in four people will regularly conduct ecommerce transactions using interactive television.

An eBay commissioned survey estimates that £750m worth of sales are expected by this period, so the rise of Internet connected TVs looks set to become one of the most influential emerging ecomm channels.

This trend is largely due to the increasing convergence of user interfaces across platforms i.e. Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows. The gaps between the look and feel of our devices and what we can do with them are ever decreasing.

Angus McCarey, UK Retail Director for eBay commented: “We are entering a period of transformation in the retail sector. Consumers are driving this as they demand more choice, more interactivity, specialist knowledge and price transparency.”

This paired with brand recognition means that consumers are anticipated to be keen to adopt interactive television for their purchases, in what is already being described as iTV-Commerce.

McCarey added: “Third-wave technologies are about meeting those demands and presenting information back to consumers in ways that haven’t been possible before – using virtual reality to try clothes on, or watching your favourite show on TV and buying the box set at the same time.”

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• Strategy
• User behaviour