ENGAGEWEB

Twitter taps into ecommerce with ‘buy now’ feature

Mark Glenning

A year after dipping its toes into online retail with a trial of a ‘buy now’ button, Twitter has announced a formal system-wide rollout.

Twitter has worked hard to get a raft of major retailers on its side by making it as easy as possible for them to be a part of this new feature. This includes the integration of all leading ecommerce platforms, including Demandware, Bigcommerce and Shopify. Merchants will also be able to list their wares on Stripe Relay.

For now, the feature has only been made available in the US, but given that the microblogging site is looking to generate fresh revenue streams in the face of slowing growth, it may be just a matter of time before its users in other countries, such as the UK and Canada, get to enjoy the new feature.

Nathan Hubbard, head of commerce for Twitter, had this to say:

“We think of Twitter as the world’s largest direct-to-consumer channel.
“We have been from the beginning working to try to make those conversations transactional while appropriate. Brands are building direct relationships with consumers… what they don’t always have is distribution.”

He added that there is a huge demand of this as part of internet marketing, citing over 50 million tweets per month featuring the phrases “I need” or “I want”.

Hubbard has predicted billions of pounds in online transactions. It’s possible that the next major thing in business will be ‘buy’ buttons on mobile phones, given that more than 100 million users are already connected to brands or merchants on the platform.