What Roku's New Walmart Ad Deal Means For Users

Cutting the cord is no longer a radical movement limited to younger consumers who want to adopt a more independent and digital lifestyle. It has, in a way, become the norm these days, with streaming services and streaming boxes taking the place of traditional cable and TV subscriptions in many homes. Unsurprisingly, the advertising and e-commerce sectors are realizing how profitable streaming can be, especially considering that today's viewers want to immediately buy what they see. Hopping on a bandwagon of their own creation, Walmart and Roku are setting the stage for a new kind of shopping experience, one that advertisers on traditional TV could have only dreamed of years ago.

TV ads have been around since the earliest days of television and have been one of the few ways networks can offer their streaming services free of charge or at a subsidized rate — Hulu, for example, has an ad-supported plan that is cheaper than the ad-free alternative. Many consumers consider commercials a nuisance, but for companies, they're a prime opportunity to usher in a new age of shopping, one that involves buying stuff from the comfort of your couch.

Shopping ads on streaming services aren't new, but Walmart and Roku apparently believe there's plenty of room for improvement and a new market waiting to be born. Thus, the two have paired up to make shopping on your TV while streaming content a nearly instant process, creating a first-of-its-kind ad experience to offer what the duo calls shoppable ads right on your Roku-connected TV (via BusinessWire).

Walmart says there is a big disconnect between the time you see an ad on TV to actually buying it, presuming you get inspired to buy it in the first place. Some platforms have tried to make this process a bit easier by leveraging QR codes, but the friction involved with grabbing your phone to scan that code to ultimately buy the product may stop many viewers from making an effort. This is a lost opportunity and lost sales, so Walmart and Roku's partnership takes the middle man out of the equation.

When Roku users see a Walmart ad on the screen, all they have to do is select that item and press OK to proceed to checkout. Another press of OK completes the purchase using the payment details that are already stored on the user's Roku Pay account. That's pretty much all there is to buying something you want on TV, a dream of advertisers and retailers for decades finally come true.

For Walmart, this empowers users to instantly make a purchase at the time of inspiration — that is, the moment they see something they want to buy. Of course, this plays into modern psychology, where people have come to expect instant gratification at the push of a single button. Whether that's good for people's mental health — not to mention their bank accounts — is yet to be seen.