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Teleshopping has been around since the 1980s and has been an excellent way for entrepreneurs to showcase products and reach a larger audience. But with social media platforms, including Facebook, jumping on the e-commerce bandwagon, is Teleshopping still a viable platform for the online generation?
What is Teleshopping, and Why Did it Begin?
Those who may not have seen the ungodly hours of 3 am may be unfamiliar with the world of buying items over the phone through designated advertising shows. Teleshopping gives any budding business or established company a platform to showcase their products to a wide variety of audiences.
It is a combination of late-night slots on high-profile channels or featuring on designated shopping channels. A business can explain the product in detail, show it in action and offer exclusive discounts to potential customers who place an order by calling the hotline. The products range from household items to jewellery, clothes, and more.
Before the digital age of shopping, purchasing luxury items like this helped make them more accessible. Unless you were committed to travelling, your shopping experience would consist of visiting your local high street; often shops selling basics and essentials that many of us would order online today.
Can You Still Access Teletext?
The younger generation will often give a look of confusion when mentioning Teletext, but before the internet, it provided you with up-to-date information that would otherwise be unknown. For example, you would use it to find out sports fixture results, weather, and news updates. It was also a platform you could book holidays through with its interactive functions.
The UK significantly reduced the service in 2010, with Teletext LTD turning to online platforms. So if you buy a cheap LED TV today, the likelihood is that if it was manufactured after 2020, this function will have been removed altogether.
Can You Still Shop With Your TV?
With the increasing accessibility of smart TVs and incredible 4K TV deals, most households will own a smart TV, and there are several ways to shop through them.
Voice Control – We imagine it won’t be too long before you can buy items directly from your device. Until then, many TVs with features like Amazon’s Alexa can request an item be added to your shopping list using the voice control function. With the assistance of other devices, you can then order your favourite Amazon products without even logging onto a computer.
Apps for Your TV – There are plenty of shopping channels still thriving through Teleshopping. Although you may not be able to download a direct shopping app, there are plenty of apps you can download on even the cheapest smart TV, giving you 24/7 access to all the shopping channels; ideal platforms for buying that one of a kind gift around the holidays.
Browser Function – Every smart TV has a universal internet browser. Using this function on a smart TV allows you to access the world wide web through your remote control. Like your mobile phone or laptop, you can find all your favourite shopping sites and purchase through them as you would using a computer or your phone.
Pros and Cons of Teleshopping Vs Online
Online shopping gives you the ability to shop anywhere at any time, with smartphones providing a quick and easy way of spending money. Whilst this is very convenient, it exposes you to impulsive buying without any information on a product and fake online reviews, good and bad which can often be misleading.
On the other hand, the Teleshopping apps through a smart TV allow you to see the item in real-life use. You can see exactly how it works and decide whether you believe you can get value for your money. Teleshopping also offers incredible exclusive deals that you will not find online. Having exclusive rights over a product allows the channel to set the price they wish, often running discounts with the first ten callers getting extreme price cuts.
Even if you would prefer to purchase online rather than over the phone, most Teleshopping apps will provide QR codes for you to scan and instantly access the web page for that product.
Do I Need a Smart TV to Access Shopping Channels?
There is no need for smart functions on your TV to access the shopping channels, but it helps to provide you with even more viewing options. QVC is perhaps the biggest platform in the UK, celebrating 30 years of broadcasting, and it can be accessed through any TV with Freeview. However, you can access an even larger range of shows not readily available on the Freeview menu with a smart TV. In addition, each TV brand comes with its own exclusive apps to download, giving you complete access to products not found anywhere else.
If you are looking for the best cheap TVs to give you optimum viewing capability of shopping channels and for downloading apps, you can visit our discount TV warehouse in Birmingham to upgrade your TV.
