Following a path also being blazed by Facebook, a new Twitter Buy button is currently in testing. Twitter says it is partnering with companies like Fancy, Gumroad, MusicToday, and Stripe to implement the Buy button into Tweets.
In a post on the official Twitter Blog, Group Product Manager Tarun Jain writes:
“This is an early step in our building functionality into Twitter to make shopping from mobile devices convenient and easy, hopefully even fun. Users will get access to offers and merchandise they can’t get anywhere else and can act on them right in the Twitter apps for Android and iOS; sellers will gain a new way to turn the direct relationship they build with their followers into sales.”
Here’s a quick video overview from Twitter showing how the button works:
The Twitter Buy Button is only available to a limited number of users thus far.
The company has also limited the number of sellers that can use the button during this testing phase. They include music artists Eminem and Megadeth, well-known brands like Burberry and The Home Depot, and non-profit groups GLAAD and The Nature Conservancy among others.
The test group will be utilizing the new Twitter Buy Button on their tweets for the next few weeks. But Twitter says it plans to eventually introduce its use to more brands, businesses and organizations in the future.
To make a purchase using the new button, users only have to make a few taps on their mobile screens, Twitter says. The company promises to securely hold each user’s credit card information. Twitter says it will not share that information with sellers on the social site.
After a user clicks the Buy button, they’ll be directed to another page with more product details and the option to confirm the purchase. Once the purchase is confirmed through Twitter, the company sends the order information to the merchant.
The new feature could be big news for small businesses eventually.
A study commissioned last year by Twitter found 72 percent of a small business’s followers say they would be likely purchase a product from that business. The data suggests Twitter followers are more likely to become future customers and potentially more loyal customers.
Twitter follows Facebook, which introduced a Buy button in late July, also announcing it would test the feature first with a limited number of merchants.
Image: Twitter
I just heard about his.
I’m not being a smart guy here, but it sounds really, really commercial.
I wonder if this will change things forever-with how we all look at Twitter.
Of course, if the team at Twitter would like to approach me and offer to sell some of MY books…..
🙂
The Franchise King®
Joel: It is good to be commercial, if you do it in the right way. Will the ads pop up randomly, or will it have something to do with my content creation on Twitter?
Aira Bongco
I guess it is their way of inserting e-commerce into their platform. I just don’t know if it is a good thing as it will be swarmed with sellers once it is implemented.
This is a big step for monetization. While we might all like Twitter to keep the ads off and avoid “selling out”, this is an important thing for a publicly traded company because it will allow them to increase revenue and the share price, which keeps investors happy. I’m interested to see how it goes.
Robert: What is your prognosis? How quick does Twitter has to earn money on this, before they scrap it?