Amazon Enhances Shopping Integration in Prime Video with New X-Ray and Lens Features

Amazon is going to make it easier to shop when you’re watching TV. The retail giant on Thursday announced a series of new features that will allow customers to discover products across thousands of Prime Video titles through integrations with its existing X-Ray experience, which today displays real-time actor bios, character names, soundtrack music, and more. It will also introduce a new way to “shop the scene” using Amazon’s Lens technology, along with other updates.

The changes follow last year’s launch of “Shop the Show,” a second-screen shopping experience available through the Amazon mobile shopping app. Instead of interrupting your viewing experience or displaying product information on-screen, this feature would take you to products tied to a given movie, show, or live sports event when you typed “shop the show” into the Amazon Search app.

Arguably, that feature was easy to miss. These new features will make the product recommendations more prominent and easier to access.

Amazon joins a number of services that are working to integrate shopping suggestions into the viewing experience to create an additional revenue stream. YouTube has long offered creators a merch shelf to hawk their products and offers shoppable connected TV ads. Peacock in 2023 added a Must ShopTV feature that lets viewers buy products that appeared in its content. Roku also offers a way to shop with its remote. Disney has experimented with shoppable TV, including in streaming ads on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN.

To shop via Amazon’s X-Ray, you’d launch the X-Ray experience as usual by pausing the video and then pressing up on the Fire TV remote. You’ll then be able to visit the new Shop tab that will showcase products related to what you’re watching. To make a purchase, you would then open the Amazon Shopping app, which recognizes what’s playing and drops you into a feed synced to that moment, where you can browse the products you like.

The second-screen experience beyond X-Ray has been improved as well. Instead of requiring users to enter the “shop the show” search request, they can just open the Amazon Shopping app while watching a movie or show and be taken to that title’s storefront.

They can then tap the image to have Amazon’s visual search technology, Amazon Lens, identify other products inspired by the characters’ outfits, home decor, and other items appearing in the scene. This feature, called “Shop the Scene,” won’t always lead to an exact match; characters are often wearing clothing that Amazon or its sellers don’t stock, including pieces from high-end brands or handmade costumes. But it will at least be a jumping-off point for finding products that could help you achieve a similar look.

The “Shop the Scene” technology is live today on iOS and Android in the U.S. and works with more than 600 titles.