Now, you can go shopping on your TV with the new e-commerce capabilities of Amazon Fire TV. The fledgling service has started rolling out this week, with Amazon following on with a dedicated shopping channel to be launched next year.
Since your Fire TV is linked to your Amazon account, e-commerce integration makes shopping easy and seamless. Make purchases from the comfort of your couch on your Fire TV with just three clicks: Click on the product’s banner ad at the top of the screen, click on the button to check out your purchase and click to confirm your payment using your credit card information on file. Your purchase will be delivered to the primary address on file.
Product offerings are limited for now. Options include Fitbit devices, Hershey's candy and Mattel toys. You can browse additional product photos and customer reviews.
Amazon Fire TV shopping is still in its early stages, and Amazon is still ironing out kinks. There is no shopping portal yet, so if you want to buy a specific product, you have to wait for its ad to appear in the banner ad space.
There is also no shopping cart yet, so you have to check out products one at a time, instead of putting them into a virtual cart for check-out later. If you'd like to buy multiple items at once, you can add the products to your Amazon Wish List. Then you can complete check-out later with your computer or mobile device.
A source told GeekWire that Amazon has been testing the new TV shopping functionality for two weeks, and results have been encouraging. GeekWire also learned that Amazon plans to open a shopping channel similar to QVC that allows viewers to purchase products right from the screen, instead of having to call a phone number or place an online order through a computer.
The e-shopping functionality on the Fire TV joins other Amazon shopping innovations and initiatives such as AmazonFresh, Amazon Prime Now, Amazon Local, Handmade at Amazon and others.
Amazon recently launched new models of the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick.
[Image credit: Amazon]
