Online shopping is about to get a whole lot easier.
If that phrase scares you and your wallet, you’re not alone. Browse, add to cart, enter information, and as soon as the next day you can receive your online shopping order. That’s the world of online shopping as we see it today, but as reported last Monday, Twitter is testing “a new way for you to discover and buy products on Twitter.”
Twitter plans to use an embedded ‘Buy‘ button as a shortcut for social shopping. Twitter’s Head of Commerce, Nathan Hubbard, was brought onto the team from Ticketmaster to add some eCommerce expertise to the company and probably specifically for this project.
On the subject of the new ‘Buy’ button, he states, “We want to be a bridge between a consumer wanting something and getting it.” This will encourage spontaneous online purchasing and virtual word of mouth marketing. In addition, Twitter is claiming a unique aspect to their system will be that users get access to offers and merchandise not available anywhere else.
In the past, Twitter has formed many partnerships in attempts to step into the social eCommerce market. Last May, Twitter and Amazon, a duo with a large amount of potential, came together to allow users to shop by hashtag. As well, Twitter bought Cardspring Inc. last July to combine their services with a company that lets users redeem deals and discounts through merchants’ tweets.
Their current partner is payments company Stripe Inc. It seems that this partnership will come into play to allow users to securely save credit-card information and make purchases in a few quick clicks.
We all know that when it comes to social networks, privacy and security is always a big concern. Twitter is here to assure you that entering your credit card information on a social network may seem scary, but is actually secure. In order to pay with Twitter, all your sensitive information will be encrypted and safely stored after your first transaction, so you can easily buy again without having to re-enter your information. This format is similar to that of online food ordering services that many people love dearly, such as Grubhub and Seamless. Plus, to ease your concerns a little more, you can always remove this information from your account any time you want.
Currently, Twitter is testing out this service with a select group of artists, brands, and nonprofit organizations.
The Bigger Goal
image from ads.twitter.com
Now, one of the goals of introducing an eCommerce element to Twitter is obviously to increase direct product sales. This directly benefits Twitter because directly from these transactions, they will get a cut of the profit.
But a more important aspect of the project is directed towards advertisers. The bigger goal, according to Mashable.com, may simply be to use commerce as a way to boost engagement among users by giving them more reason to stay on site as well as provide an additional selling point to advertisers.
If Twitter can track who is buying directly from tweets, they can more easily have data to promise sales to other potential advertisers. They can do what many companies have been searching for from social networks; prove the ROI and promise advertising through twitter is worth their time and money.
This data is already sounds good to investors. Twitter shares rose 2.6 percent to $52 at the close in New York, to their highest level since March soon after the news of eCommerce broke.
What do you think about Twitter’s entrance into the world of eCommerce? Let me know in the comments below!
