The future of e-commerce: See it, want it, buy it
- IT TOPICS:Management
The next big thing in e-commerce may be t-commerce, reports USA Today. Excerpts:
Talk about impulse buying. You're watching your favorite cable channel and admire a product on the show. With a few clicks on your TV remote, it's yours.
A handful of cable networks — and not just the shopping channels — are testing technology that will let TV watchers buy without leaving their sofas. So-called t-commerce is expected to be available to some cable and satellite customers within the next year.
Various t-commerce technologies are being tested. All generally work like ordering a cable pay-per-view or video-on-demand (VOD) movie. Shoppers press a button on the remote to select an item and toggle through such choices as size, shipping address and payment. In most cases, shoppers must register in advance such information as addresses and payment preferences. T-commerce technology requires satellite TV or digital cable service.
Shopping network QVC has been testing t-commerce in a few markets for a year and is working out the glitches. Want to see what this looks like? Here's the technology vendor's demo (link -- scroll to the bottom!). I'd love to know more about the back-office IT behind the screens.
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