Amazon announced Thursday that it is adding shopping features to its Prime Video service, letting viewers find and buy products tied to what they are watching.
The centerpiece is an expansion of Amazon's existing X-Ray experience, which currently shows real-time actor bios, character names, and soundtrack music. Viewers who pause a video and press up on a Fire TV remote can now reach a Shop tab listing products connected to the title. Purchases are completed through the Amazon Shopping app, which detects what is playing and opens a feed synced to that scene.
The company also introduced a second-screen option that removes a step from an earlier feature. Instead of typing "shop the show" into the Amazon Search app, customers can open the Amazon Shopping app while watching and land directly on that title's storefront.
A new feature called Shop the Scene uses Amazon Lens, the company's visual search technology, to identify products inspired by what appears on screen, such as characters' outfits and home decor. Amazon cautioned that results will not always be exact matches, since characters sometimes wear items that Amazon or its sellers do not carry, including high-end brands and handmade costumes. The company described the tool as a starting point for finding a similar look.
Shop the Scene is live today on iOS and Android in the U.S. and works with more than 600 titles. Shop the Show is expanding from 1,300 titles to more than 8,000 in the U.S., covering Prime Originals, select licensed favorites, and live sports.
The update follows last year's launch of Shop the Show. Amazon said that version was easy to overlook, and the new features are intended to make product recommendations more visible and simpler to reach.
Amazon is not alone in tying retail to video. YouTube has offered creators a merch shelf and runs shoppable connected TV ads. Peacock added a Must ShopTV feature in 2023, Roku offers shopping through its remote, and Disney has tested shoppable TV, including in streaming ads on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN.
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