T-commerce: From Spot to Shopping Cart in one click

In 2026, television is no longer a “dumb box” but the most powerful selling point in the home. The convergence between high-quality content and instant purchase has given rise to an ecosystem where watching an ad and purchasing the product is a process of seconds.

Here is the definitive guide to the Shoppable TV and T-Commerce for this year.

T-commerce How do they differ?

Although often used as synonyms, in 2026 the industry marks a technical distinction based on interaction:

• Shoppable TV: Refers to the ability to interact directly with video content for shopping. It includes visual overlays, dynamic QR codes or product carousels that appear while watching a series or commercial.
• T-Commerce (Television Commerce): The complete ecosystem of transactions made through the TV. This includes everything from remote control purchases to voice command transactions to native shopping apps within the Smart TV.

Formats Dominating the Market in 2026

Advertising no longer interrupts, but integrates. These are the most effective formats today:

Disruptive trends for 2026

Agentic AI and Personalization

Gone are the days of generic ads. Agentic AI analyzes household context and previous behavior to show specific products to each user. If you’re watching a cooking tutorial, the Shoppable TV ad will offer you the exact ingredients that are available at your local supermarket for immediate delivery.

Convergence with Retail Media

Giants like Walmart and Amazon have integrated their purchase data with their streaming platforms. This enables a full-funnel in retal media: you can measure exactly how many people bought a product after seeing it in a TV ad, closing the attribution gap that existed before.

New Sound Regulation (TDT)

In 2026, regulations prohibiting commercials from playing louder than the program (limited to -23 LUFS) have come into effect. This improves the user experience, making the viewer more inclined to interact with T-Commerce formats instead of muting the TV.

Benefits for brands

• Real Attribution: Finally we can say: “I invested X in TV and got Y direct sales”.
• Zero Friction: The step from “I want it” to “I bought it” is reduced to two clicks.
• First-Party Data: Brands obtain direct data from the end consumer without relying on third-party cookies.

Key fact: It is estimated that by the end of 2026, more than 60% of Smart TV households will have made at least one direct purchase from their TV.

Real application case study

For the structure to be really effective, we will simulate the launch of a mass consumer product (e.g., a smart coffee maker or a premium snack brand), as they are the best converters in this format.

Here you have the technical roadmap for a campaign of Shoppable TV campaign in 2026:

Campaign strategy: “Direct-to-Living-Room”.

1. Target Definition and Segmentation (Contextual AI)

Instead of just segmenting by age, we will use lifestyle segmentation by cross-referencing Smart TV data:

• Audience: Users who watch design, cooking or technology programs between 19:00 and 22:00.
• Context: The ad will be triggered only if the AI detects that the user has shown previous interest in similar categories in their browsing history or streaming apps.

2. The Format Mix (The “Funnel” on Screen)

We will divide the campaign into three different impacts so as not to saturate:

3. Technical structure of the creative piece

For T-Commerce to work, video must follow the “Three Thirds Screen” rule:

• Safe Zone (Center): Emotional content and narrative.
• Interaction Zone (Right/Bottom): Space free of important elements where the purchase buttons or QR code will appear.
• Urgency Zone (Top): A small “Limited Time Offer” counter or banner to incentivize immediate click-through.

4. The Checkout Flow

We will configure two routes depending on the device:

1. Lazy-Buy path: If the user has his card linked to the TV account (Samsung Checkout, LG Pay or Google TV), the purchase is confirmed with two clicks.
2. Second Screen” route (Mobile): The QR code opens an Instant App (no download) on your phone with the product already added to the cart.

5. Measuring success (2026 KPIs)

Forget traditional GRP; here we will measure:

• TCR (Total Conversion Rate): Total sales divided by ad impressions.
• Attribution Window: How many users saw the ad on TV and bought it on their mobile in the following 24 hours.
• Interaction Rate: How many people used the control to explore more details of the product.

Pro Tip: To maximize conversion, we will include a “First TV Purchase Incentive”. For example: “Scan now and get an exclusive 15% discount for buying from your TV”.

The triumph of the “Full-Funnel TV”.

In 2026, the success of Shoppable TV and T-Commerce lies not in visual creativity, but in data interoperability. TV has finally been integrated into the digital ecosystem under three technical pillars:

1. Elimination of the “Silo Effect”: Thanks to the integration with Retail Media, attribution is deterministic. We no longer estimate who saw the ad; we know which device ID (Smart TV) generated a transaction on a linked account, closing the end-to-end measurement loop.
2. Reduced friction (Seamless UX): One-click-payment technology integrated into TV operating systems (WebOS, Tizen, Google TV) has solved the biggest historical hurdle for T-Commerce. By eliminating the need to enter bank details with the remote control, conversion rates have matched those of mobile e-commerce.
3. Contextual and Dynamic AI: The ability to render interactive elements in real time (such as QR codes with local pricing or synchronized stock) turns each ad into an “ephemeral store”. Advertising is no longer a static video file, but a dynamic web application. dynamic web application running on a video stream.

Final summary

TV in 2026 is the most impactful conversion channel because it combines the emotional reach of the big screen with the surgical precision of performance marketing. Brands that do not integrate their product feeds into their Connected TV (CTV) campaigns will be wasting the consumer’s prime time of attention.

Find out more about our advertising solutions for businesses.

Jorge Anduix

Marketing tecnológico en vena. Fanático de las tecnologías Martech que rompen moldes: IA generativa, blockchain, no-code, metaverso, automatización extrema… Convencido de que el futuro no se espera, se construye (y se vende muy bien).

Responsable del marketing más disruptivo y tecnológico.