Amazon is turning Prime Video into a storefront. The company announced Thursday a new feature called Shop the Scene that lets viewers buy products featured in the shows and movies they are watching, or find similar items, through the Amazon Shopping app.
The feature is now available on more than 600 Prime Video titles for users in the United States. Amazon said the experience is designed to work with minimal interruption to viewing, allowing customers to pull up items inspired by the scene on their phone while the show continues.
Amazon is also expanding its broader Shop the Show experience, which it introduced last year to let users browse products related to Prime Video titles, such as bobbleheads or LEGO sets. That program is growing to more than 8,000 titles from 1,300 previously.
«We are making it easier than ever for Prime Video customers to shop what they see on screen,» Michelle Rothman, vice president of Prime Video shopping, said in the announcement.
The new Shop the Scene feature uses artificial intelligence to identify clothing an actor is wearing and offer the same outfit or a similar one for purchase. Amazon cautioned that the match may not always be exact. Prime Video is also adding a shop tab inside its X-Ray feature, which viewers use to identify actors or music in a show. Users can open X-Ray with their remote, browse products tied to what they are watching, and complete the transaction on their phone.
The move is the latest attempt by a streaming company to generate revenue beyond subscription fees. Netflix, Disney, and Peacock have spent years experimenting with ways to make streaming more profitable, including raising subscription prices, cracking down on account sharing, and introducing tiered and ad-supported plans.
Amazon is not the first to try shoppable television. NBC's Peacock launched a Must ShopTV feature in 2023 that allowed users to purchase products featured in content in real time. Disney+ has also tested a shoppable TV feature that let subscribers shop on certain pages via a QR code displayed on their television screen.
For Amazon, the feature serves a dual purpose: it capitalizes on the attention Prime Video already captures while feeding its massive online shopping business. The company said late last year that its ad-supported Prime Video tier reaches more than 315 million people worldwide, up sharply from the 200 million users it disclosed in 2024.
Amazon has spent years trying to intertwine shopping and entertainment. It has developed virtual product placement technology that uses machine learning to let advertisers insert brands into films and television shows after they have been produced.
There is some evidence that product placement can influence consumer behavior. A survey by YouGov earlier this year found that just over half of U.S. adults consider product placement an effective form of advertising, compared with 14% who said it was ineffective. About 4% of respondents said they took action after seeing a brand in content they watched. Of those, 22% searched for the product online and 10% said they made a purchase.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the announcement.