Video streaming tech company Roku has partnered with e-commerce platform Shopify to offer television viewers the ability to purchase products using their TV remotes. When a Roku Action Ad appears featuring a Shopify merchant, viewers can press OK on their Roku remote to get more information about the product and click to purchase directly from their TV. Consumers will be able to check out using Roku Pay. Roku explains Action Ads as “advertisements on Roku streaming devices that provide a down funnel action, such as sending users a text, scanning a QR code, or making a purchase.”

“Payment and shipping details are prepopulated using a viewer’s Roku Pay information, allowing the order to be placed with the push of a button,” Roku explains in a blog post. “Upon purchase completion, they return to the streaming experience and receive an email confirmation with shipping and other details directly from the merchant.”

Men’s apparel brand True Classic, health and wellness firm Olly and game-based rower Ergatta are initial partners taking part in Roku’s Shopify test, TechCrunch reports. Retail and commerce partners that have previously leveraged Roku Action Ads include Walmart and DoorDash.

Roku Senior Director of Ad Innovation Peter Hamilton said that “bringing a Shopify purchase experience to television for merchants is an industry first,” and that the integration will “make advertisers unmissable across the streamer’s journey.”

TechCrunch notes that in 2021, Roku claimed to be the first TV streaming app in the Shopify App Store, launching “a marketing app for Shopify merchants, allowing them to build, purchase and measure TV streaming ad campaigns.”

True Classic VP Paige Decker emphasized the benefit of “sound channel measurement” as well as “a frictionless path to purchase for customers” that will allow the company to monitor impact of end-to-end Shopify integration.

Roku says it is “creating a completely new ad channel” for Shopify merchants. The announcement follows Roku’s debut of new ad products at the IAB NewFronts 2023, where the company touted contextual AI that inserts ads in real time.

“Separately, Roku struck its first live sports deal last month, becoming the U.S. media partner for Formula E, the motorsport championship series for electric racing cars,” TechCrunch reports.

As the “first streaming commerce integration for independent Shopify merchants,” Roku says it is “creating a completely new ad channel for these businesses.”

Related:
Shopify to Launch AI Assistant for Merchants, Reuters, 7/12/23