Thus far, T-commerce hasn’t delivered much on what many assume to be vast potential, but Delivery Agent hopes to change that after forging a relationship with one of the masters of Internet-based commerce, PayPal.
The idea is to induce PayPal merchants to take advantage of Delivery Agent’s existing relationships with service providers and consumer electronics companies to offer coupons, requests for information (RFIs) and the ability to make direct purchases.
PayPal bit. “Our goal is to be at the forefront of all technological advances and to offer our consumers and retail partners as many purchasing options as possible,” said Mark Wenger, director of connected devices and iTV at PayPal. “This relationship with Delivery Agent will offer our global community additional ways to interact and transact.”
Delivery Agent, backed by Liberty Global Ventures and Intel Capital among others, has what it describes as long term partnerships with NBC, FOX, CBS, HBO, Showtime, Pepsi, Visa, Comcast / NBCUniversal, Cablevision, AT&T, Verizon, Samsung and LG, among others. Delivery Agent calculates that its reach through those partners encompasses 85 million homes.
Retailers can engage consumers directly via their own advertising or via contextually relevant television programming, the company said.
“The U.S. Consumer T-Commerce Purchasing Report” just released by Delivery Agent, showed 76 percent of respondents are interested in purchasing products or services directly from the commercial they’re watching. Eighty-two percent are interested in purchasing products seen in or tied to their favorite show.
In addition to completing purchases, 30 percent of respondents would be interested in saving products to a wish list, 25 percent would be interested in “liking” products on Facebook and 17 percent would be interested in participating in social games as a way to earn discounts.
“PayPal understands the importance of t-commerce to their customers,” said Mike Fitzsimmons, Delivery Agent CEO. “The Delivery Agent ecosystem will allow PayPal merchants to strengthen the impact of their advertising through interactive engagement that reaches millions of households.”
