Hot Takes: The Future Of Shoppable TV

Shoppable ads are on the rise, but what will it take to push them fully into the mainstream? We asked our TVREV Thought Leaders Circle members to share their insights on the challenges, opportunities, and innovations shaping the future of t-commerce.

First up was Tony Marlow, Chief Marketing Officer, LG Ad Solutions, who sees reducing friction as the key to unlocking the next phase of shoppable ads.

Shoppable ads are already thriving, but they’re not reaching their full potential because some friction remains. Consumers want to engage, and they’re ready to buy (right now!), however too many shoppable opportunities are still trapped in the QR code.

To be clear, QR codes are fine for shifting the experience from TV to mobile for conversion, but the key to unlocking the next wave of growth is making the handoff between TV and mobile—or TV and purchase—even more seamless. Consumers already use their phones as a natural extension of their shopping journey. Instead of relying on QR codes as the primary gateway, the future lies in direct deep-linking to shopping apps, one-tap checkout experiences, and smart TV payment solutions like webOS Pay that enable instant transactions while keeping the phone integrated for tracking and loyalty.

Dan Mouradian, SVP, Global Client Solutions, Innovid, believes CTV is making shopping a natural part of the viewing experience.

Shoppable ads aren’t just going mainstream – they’re already here. As CTV, social, and digital video continue to converge, the gap between creativity and commerce is disappearing. Not long ago, many consumers wouldn’t dream of making purchases on mobile devices. Now, buying while scrolling is commonplace, and engaging with interactive video on the biggest screen in the house is normalizing more and more each day. 

Innovid data shows that interactive CTV ads drive 10x the engagement of standard video and generate an additional 92 seconds of engagement. The ability to click, scan, or tap to buy is more than a trend – it’s the new consumer expectation. As adoption accelerates across streaming platforms, shoppable ads won’t just be mainstream – they’ll redefine the ad experience, blending entertainment and commerce to turn every screen into a storefront.

Bill McLaughlin, Head of CTV Sales, TripleLift, believes a seamless, unified shopping experience is key to mainstream adoption.

For shoppable ads to go mainstream, several key factors need to come together whether it’s simple as a seamless user experience to cross platform consistency to basic adoption by more brands and advertisers.

The process of purchasing through shoppable ads must be as seamless and easy as possible. This means quick transactions with minimal steps between discovering a product and completing a purchase. Having done a lot with social media in my past life, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube need to make sure that shoppable ads are integrated in such a way that they don't disrupt the user’s content experience, and they feel like a natural part of the browsing or viewing process.

In my opinion, the shopping experience needs to be consistent across various platforms (social media, websites, mobile apps). We talked a lot about this when I was at Disney, but this means a unified shopping cart, payment system, and product recommendations that are the same across platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Google. Also , more brands, especially smaller businesses, need to adopt the format. This could be good for independent  agencies too!  This will require better educational resources and tools that simplify the creation of these ads. 

Mike Laband, Group SVP, Revenue, Magnite, sees AI-driven tools as a way to lower the barrier to entry for brands.

Shoppable CTV ads offer a huge opportunity, particularly when the ability to leverage e-commerce and audience data for addressable ad experiences becomes commonplace. We’re going to see more adoption of shoppable CTV ads once SMB advertisers can easily activate this format and there are a few factors that will make this possible. On the advertiser side, increasing accessibility to AI-powered creative tools reduces the cost and complexity of producing TV-quality ads. To spur consumer adoption, shoppable ads need to align with established consumer behaviors so viewers can act on purchase intent seamlessly. Consumer interaction methods need to evolve beyond QR codes to more frictionless options - and what better way to do that than through mobile? From Magnite’s view of the omnichannel ecosystem, there’s an untapped opportunity to bundle audience packages across different screens to make shoppable ads a scalable reality.

Raf Bagdasarian, Co-Founder and CEO, Paket Media, thinks big tech’s built-in ecosystems give them an edge.

Friction has always been the mitigating factor when it comes to shippable ads going mainstream. For better or for worse, the solution is less a standalone service and has more to do with the seamless integration of services within a platform ecosystem. In this way, Apple, Google, and Amazon have the clear advantage. There’s no reason, for example, an ad or on-screen, frame-level trigger couldn’t initiate a push notification that, on a user action, could pre-populate an ApplePay transaction, complete with contact info and shipping details. Simple. Frictionless. Oh, and dangerous ;).

Natalie Bastian, Teads Global CMO, argues that brands need clearer attribution before they fully commit to shoppable ads.

Shoppable CTV ads will really take off when we have scalable, agnostic attribution across OEMs. Right now, it is tough for brands to get a clear, unbiased view of consumer actions which blocks their ability to invest at scale. Once brands can see the impact their ads are driving, we’ll start to see shoppable go fully mainstream. 

Drew Groner, SVP, Head of Sales, DIRECTV Advertising, sees pause ads as an opportunity to make shopping feel natural.

Making shoppable ads mainstream starts with innovative ad formats like pause ads that are non-invasive to the viewing experience. Pause ads can addressably serve shoppable creative when viewers are naturally pausing to make the most of moments when life gets in the way of watching. If that moment showcases a QR code, for instance, linking to featured products, then these ad formats can easily turn pauses into purchases. By continuing to standardize these ad formats, keeping viewers at the center, shoppability will become a natural extension of the content being consumed.

Andrew Fleming, COO, StreamLayer, argues that QR codes alone won’t cut it—ads need to be truly interactive.

Short Answer: Stop making viewers work so hard. Simply slapping a QR code on a traditional ad doesn’t make it “interactive” or “shoppable” - no one is scrambling for their phone, opening the camera, and scanning in a matter of seconds. With StreamLayer’s server-guided, interactive ad insertion, media companies can create a seamless, intuitive shopping experience without forcing users to leave the video or switch devices. Simple, effective CTA buttons that require a single remote click (or mobile/tablet tab) remove friction and deliver immediate, measurable engagement. These can include: receive an email with more details; download a coupon, even click-to-purchase within the video. Advertisers are already seeing results. As more brands demand this functionality, shoppable ads will finally take off.

Paramount Advertising believes commerce media will bridge the gap between advertising and consumer purchasing.

It’s up to us as a publisher to flex into the shoppable landscape. With consumer journeys becoming increasingly complex, we’re continuing to focus on commerce media solutions to extend advertising messaging and facilitate mid to bottom funnel activities.

Gavin Douglas, CEO, Drawbridge Labs, envisions AI-powered interactivity making shoppable ads more engaging.

Shoppable ads won’t go mainstream until they stop feeling like a chore. Nobody wants to wrestle with a clunky remote or scan a QR code that leads to a webpage straight out of 2009. The future? AI-powered, 3D, and seamlessly mobile. At Drawbridge, we know that TV is for watching, but phones are for doing. That’s why we connect the two—effortlessly. One tap from your phone launches an interactive world where your favorite celebrity (or their AI twin) personally guides you through an immersive, shop-worthy experience. 

As an industry, we need to be driving our mass audiences to brand activations ( like this one for New Balance) and extending engagement time. Browse, explore, and buy in seconds—no interruptions, no friction, just pure, irresistible engagement. Because let’s face it: If you’re already double-screening, why not make it worth your while? The future of shoppable ads isn’t a gimmick—it’s an extension of how we live, play, and shop today. And at Drawbridge, we’re making it happen.

Cédric Monnier, Co-Founder and CEO, OKAST, says shoppable ads must work on the biggest screen in the house without disrupting the experience.

For shoppable ads to be a truly scalable solution, they need to address two key challenges:

1. Big Screen Compatibility: Ads must be designed for the big screen without disrupting the shared viewing experience of the whole family. This requires innovative ad formats—such as L-shaped ads, QR codes, and hopefully even more modern and less intrusive approaches—that are both personalized and unobtrusive.

2. Seamless Purchase Experience: It’s crucial to enable a complete purchase journey (ensuring full attribution) while eliminating friction points like managing multiple app accounts, connecting with retail store systems, and ensuring product availability. Otherwise, we risk adding more frustration instead of convenience.

These are exactly the types of challenges our EU Consortium, ASAP4EU, aims to tackle—bridging advanced on-screen advertising with demand-side and retail technology.

Travis Howe, VP & Global Head of New Product Solutions, Samsung Ads, sees smart TVs evolving into a key shopping channel.

Smart TVs now are much more than just an entertainment vehicle. They provide a frictionless shopping experience with the potential of easing the path to purchase. And we aren’t far from mainstream adoption of shoppable ads which will turn the television into a shoppable surface. It starts with changing user behavior and perception of the TV. In a Samsung Ads study with Kerv, we found that 55% of respondents recall seeing a shoppable ad, and of these, half (50%) have interacted with them. There are significant signals from consumers that suggest that the time is now to transform the television-viewing experience from strictly brand awareness to a full funnel marketing vehicle.

 For consumers to fully welcome shoppable ads as a norm, advertisers must consider three things: seamless integration of technology, user experience, and infrastructure. At Samsung Ads, we've actively invested and experienced tremendous success in actionable technologies such as ‘click to’ executions that reduce friction between discovery and purchase, allowing advertisers to create fully interactive campaigns that transform the viewing experience.

 Consumers want an omnichannel experience and we are committed to developing the infrastructure that makes shopping as intuitive as browsing from the comfort of their home television.

Our TVREV take is that to go fully mainstream, shoppable ads need to be seamless, measurable, and aligned with how consumers already shop.

But more than that, everyone involved in the ecosystem needs to realize that, as several TLC members have noted, TV viewing is a group activity. Unlike, say, Instagram—where it’s easy to stop what you are doing to buy something—a TV viewer watching a show with their friends or family is unlikely to ask everyone to pause so they can order the sunglasses in the scene.

That means there will need to be some sort of ‘save it for later’ option that users can activate in real time or browse through after the show. This could be a second screen device or even an app built into the TV OS where viewers could rewatch the commercial and/or click through to a website for more details and purchase.

Not that hard to do—which is why we think shoppable is going to actually happen.