Television pitchmen for quirky products like Pajama Jeans and lighted slippers once tried to get viewers to place their orders by phone and then shifted to getting products into retail outlets with labels that screamed ?As Seen on TV.? Now, they are trying to make impulse buying even easier by experimenting with new technologies. ?Because we come from the world of video and TV, who better than us?? asked Kevin Harrington, founder of a direct response marketing company, TVGoods.
Harrington, one of the ?sharks? on ABC?s ?Shark Tank,? where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to direct response executives, bought AsSeenOnTV.com and its corresponding telephone number in June. The company, which says it has more than two million customers and 700,000 e-mail subscribers, is embracing technologies that use cellphones and remote controls to enable purchases directly from a television set.
Daily Web videos with product demonstrations are also being produced, and Facebook pages where users can buy products directly are expected to start rolling out before the end of the year.
?We anticipate most of our vendors being excited about this as a whole new way to generate products and profits,? Harrington said. AsSeenonTV.com lists 650 products from multiple vendors.
Streamlining the way consumers buy these products is one a crucial goal. Mike Fitzsimmons, the chief executive of Delivery Agent, the company providing mobile and television commerce technology to AsSeenOnTV, said it is clumsy for television viewers to have to jot down an 800 number or go to a website.
?Our whole business is taking friction out of the processing,? Fitzsimmons said.
This fall, the company will roll out technology it calls audio fingerprinting, which will enable cellphones to decipher which infomercial a user is watching after the phone is held up to the television. The user will then be sent to a mobile website where the product can be bought.