For years, we advertisers have been promising a gloriously lazy  future in which consumers will be able to purchase products they see on TV with but a click of the remote. Well, “Remote Shopping” is finally a reality, and it’s just one of several ways shopping is changing in a big way this holiday season.

Verizon FiOS and A&E’s The History Channel are the surprising duo ushering in the long-anticipated era of Remote Shopping. The service—available to customers in the Northeast, California, Texas and Florida—will launch on shows like “American Pickers” and “Pawn Stars” and allow customers to purchase items like coins, bicycles, radios and jukeboxes featured on the show. According to FiOS TV, the service will “contextualize what you’re watching on television” and “enhance the programming and create value for subscribers.”

A small icon will pop up in the upper right hand corner of the screen when an item is available, and when the viewer clicks to make his purchase, the screen will split. Viewers will then be directed to complete the purchase through TVWallet.com.

ViOS and A&E are targeting the 25-54 year-old demographic through The History Channel, and  say that they’ll consider it a success if 5% of viewers make a purchase. This seems like a high estimate, but who knows? If if happens, A&E will likely try out the service on Lifetime shows like “Drop Dead Diva,” “Army Wives,” and “Project Runway.” From there, the possibilities are endless as other networks would be sure to adopt the service. Love that stainless steel wok on top chef? Click. Dig Mike Ditka’s throwback Bears sweater on Sunday NFL Countdown? Click. Love Blair’s new outfit on Gossip Girl? (I do!) Click. The service has the potential to take product placement to a whole new level and make watching commercials an active shopping experience.

While we’ll still have to wait to know whether holiday shoppers will shop with their remotes, a new survey indicates that they plan to shop on their mobile devices far more than anyone expected; Ipsos and PayPal conducted the survey and found that “at least 46% of consumers plan to make mobile purchases this holiday season.” That’s a huge number, and the overall findings indicate that mobile shopping might finally be breaching the tipping point. Consider these other stats:

• More than 60 percent of mobile buyers will make mobile purchases while at home
• 51 percent of mobile buyers use PayPal as a mobile payment method
• 35 percent of mobile purchases are spontaneous
• 24 percent of mobile buyers spend $100 or more on their last mobile purchase

PayPal is calling this trend “couch commerce,” since it indicates that consumers are becoming accustomed to browsing and purchasing goods via their smartphones and tablets from home. It’s easy to see why: the Amazon Mobile app arguably offers a more enjoyable retail experience than Amazon.com, and deals apps like Groupon and Living Social are downright addictive for discount aficionados. For retailers, optimizing for mobile and creating engaging shopping applications has never been so crucial.

Without a doubt, retail is shifting to digital at a rapid rate in myriad ways—if you have any doubts, just look at the record $6 billion that was just spent on online shopping during the week of Cyber Monday. It should be at least a little bit easier to find a parking spot at the mall this year.