A year after Twitter began dipping its toes in the waters of e-commerce by testing “Buy Now” buttons,buttons, the company is expanding its foray into retail sales with new partnerships intended to give more businesses the ability to sell their wares directly through Twitter.
According to the official Twitter blog, it has made deals with e-commerce platforms Bigcommerce, Demandware, and Shopify. These partnerships will enable retailers and brands like Best Buy, Adidas, and PacSun to sell their products straight to customers without requiring them to take their eyes off their Twitter feed.
“Today, as we begin rolling out to a wider group of platforms and partners, people will have even more opportunities to discover and purchase products from the brands they love on Twitter,” Nathan Hubbard, Twitter’s head of commerce, writes in a blog post about the new expansion.
While the buttons are, for now, a U.S.-only option, Twitter believes the step will open a larger revenue stream beyond advertising.
“The goal for all our commerce initiatives on Twitter is simple: make it as easy as possible for businesses to connect directly with, and sell to, customers on Twitter,” Hubbard wrote. “With Buy Now, businesses can drive more conversions and remove much of the friction in the mobile purchasing process.”
Twitter first began utilizing Buy Now buttons in Sept. 2014, in tests that included just 26 handpicked musical artists and nonprofit organizations at the start, and just two brands.
The social network says it plans to continue growing its ecommerce business in coming months.
“As we continue to develop new products and expand the ecosystem of platforms and partners in the social commerce space, we can help even more brands and customers connect on social and mobile,” Hubbard said.
Wednesday’s announcement comes just two weeks after online payments company Stripe – one of the networks original ecommerce partners – announced it would start letting retailers sell their goods directly on the social media network through its new product Stripe Relay.
According to Stripe, Relay lets merchants compose one buy button that can be placed on Twitter and other apps in as little as 30 seconds, streamlining a process that previously required customers to click through to retailer’s own websites — a task that can be complicated on smartphones.
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist