E-retailing solution provider preparing for interactive TV

The day may come when interactive TV is the hottest web-selling vehicle, and some are taking steps to prepare for that day. Vcommerce, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based integrator for vendors and retailers, has adjusted its technology to work with interactive TV orders. The outsourcing company provides both front- and back-end solutions. "Interactive TV may not be a huge sales channel today," says Debra Kuhns, Vcommerce`s chief marketing officer. "If you are with a technology and can grow to that channel as it evolves, you`re keeping in step with today`s broadening channel opportunities." From a technology standpoint, the company takes its existing vendor network and integrates it with a different front end-such as interactive TV, she says. "When retailers decide to go into that channel, the back-end support can be there with little fuss."

Michelle Killman, vice president of marketing with San Diego, Calif.-based Merchandising Avenue Inc., believes interactive TV will soon be how people shop the web. Consumers will be able to buy items they see on television shows directly from their TVs. "If you`re watching Ally McBeal, and you love the outfit she is wearing, you will be able to buy right then and there from your TV," Killman says.