Buy the outfit your favourite actor is wearing in real time

JioHotstar has launched an in-stream feature that allows viewers to explore and purchase what’s called on-screen looks in real time without interrupting playback or leaving the app. Effectively, those shoppable Reels and product tags on Instagram and YouTube are now making their way to long-form OTT.

This may become a new revenue stream that goes beyond traditional advertising, subscriptions and brand integration for OTT platforms, enabling better average revenue per user (ARPU). However, challenges may crop up if such shopping pop-ups disrupt the flow of a show or film, experts said.

“What makes contextual commerce powerful on streaming is not the act of transacting, but the timing,” said Bharath Ram, chief product officer at JioHotstar. “Viewers often discover inspiration in fleeting, high-emotion moments as a story unfolds. Shop the Look reflects this shift by reimagining how discovery can happen within premium content in a way that feels natural, immersive, and entirely viewer-led, especially on mobile where attention and action converge.”

The feature is designed to respond to curiosity in real time, allowing exploration within the flow of content, without pulling audiences away from the narrative, Ram added.

“… content continues to lead, but engagement deepens. It enables brands to be present at moments of genuine relevance, while creators and platforms preserve the integrity of storytelling. At the same time, it opens up new revenue opportunities and builds streaming platforms as experiential ecosystems,” Ram pointed out.

According to experts including Ram, the future of commerce on streaming platforms will be defined by how seamlessly it integrates with the storytelling. The focus will increasingly be on experiences that are intuitive, optional and designed around user intent.

Structural difference

Phanimohan Kalagara, chief technology officer of Gracenote, the content data business unit of market research firm Nielsen, said shoppable video scaled up first on social platforms because discovery, interaction and commerce were designed into the feed from the start.

“YouTube and Instagram dominate shoppable video today because creators, brands and platforms already operate within a commerce-enabled ecosystem. What differentiates OTT is the structural requirement for standardized programme identifiers and rich content metadata to reliably connect scenes, characters and moments to products across episodes and devices,” Kalagara said.

Dr. Rashmi Jain, associate professor – marketing and international business at K J Somaiya Institute of Management, said India presents a unique advantage: the mobile-first behaviour of the majority of viewers bridges the gap between social media and streaming, allowing platforms like JioHotstar to extend that familiar ‘tap-to-interact’ experience into longer-format content.

E-commerce advertising is growing the fastest, and will overtake TV ad revenue within two years, according to Ashish Pherwani, M&E sector leader at EY India. Integrating advertising into the OTT viewing experience can result in a whole new income stream through innovative products linked to the content, he added.

“By turning a viewer into a shopper in real-time, platforms can seriously move the needle on their ARPU. But the real secret sauce is the data. OTT platforms sit on a goldmine of first-party user info,” said Manish Solanki, chief operating officer and co-founder of digital agency TheSmallBigIdea. “Instead of showing a generic snack ad, they can show you the exact jersey your favourite cricketer is wearing while you’re watching the IPL and let you buy it without even hitting pause. For advertisers, this is the holy grail: a straight line from a ‘view’ to a ‘sale’ with no friction in between.”

Shop in real time

Beyond social connectivity, there is a burgeoning expectation for “commerce-to-content” loops, particularly among Gen Z viewers who can “shop the look” in real-time, said Keren Benjamin Dias, associate vice-president, brand planning and lead capital Z at digital agency White Rivers Media.

The ultimate frontier, however, is “mood-first” AI personalization that transcends basic recommendations and prioritizes content based on the user’s immediate emotional state. This turns OTT platforms from mere content providers into essential, frictionless lifestyle destinations, Dias added.

While JioHotstar’s move is one of the first serious attempts to test whether commerce can be layered into long-form content without breaking immersion, this won’t rival subscription or ad revenue in the short term, according to Munish Vaid, vice-president at Primus Partners, a management consultancy firm. But it can become a meaningful incremental stream. Even a small conversion rate, applied at scale, can add up, especially for platforms with large daily active users.

However, such moves are unlikely to come without challenges. Rajat Agrawal, chief operating officer of Ultra Media & Entertainment Group, said in-stream commerce can disrupt narrative flow if not implemented thoughtfully. Also, products should be relevant to the content and the audience. Additionally, shoppers might get distracted from the storyline.

“Writers, directors and costume or production design must pre-plan shoppable moments without turning scenes into long-form ads or audiences will feel the show is ‘selling to them’ rather than telling a story,” said Mahesh K. Sharma, president – strategic partnerships at Chaupal, a platform specializing in Punjabi, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri content.

Further, payments, returns and customer service often sit outside the OTT app. Unless checkout is well integrated, platforms could lose the impulse-buy effect that makes live commerce work, he added.