This week, Twitter took another step in bringing ecommerce to its social platform, announcing on Wednesday additional partnerships to make it easier for retailers of any size to sell products, digital goods, or services directly within a Tweet via Buy Now. Interestingly, it’s doing so with the help – not of PayPal – but of Stripe.
“Through these new partnerships we are integrating Buy Now with platforms that power ecommerce sites for merchants of all sizes, including Bigcommerce, Demandware, and Shopify,” wrote Twitter Vice President of Commerce Nathan Hubbard, “and enabling new retailers and brands such as Best Buy, Adidas, and PacSun.”
“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. With Buy Now, businesses can drive more conversions and remove much of the friction in the mobile purchasing process,” Hubbard said.
He also quoted CEO of fashion retailer PacSun Gary Schoenfeld who called social media his company’s “single most important marketing tool,” and said social commerce was a key part of its overarching strategy.
Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Elana Anderson of Demandware, which powers PacSun’s website, said the Buy button shortens the journey from discovery to purchase. “Retailers who can effectively and efficiently extend their brands into new commerce channels like Twitter “Buy Now” buttons will gain a significant competitive advantage.”
Anderson said the “Buy Now” capability is active, and said individual retailers will be rolling out the capability on their individual timelines.
“As with previous social commerce endeavors, we are taking a measured approach with a small number of initial clients for Twitter Buy Now buttons. PacSun is among those initial clients and is currently in Pilot Mode,” she said. “As we are successful with these initial retailers like PacSun, we will look to extend this capability to additional Demandware clients.”
Another ecommerce platform, Bigcommerce, said the Twitter Buy Now will be available to its US merchants in the coming months, with international rollout planned for 2016. CEO Brent Bellm said Twitter’s Buy Now functionality will provide an opportunity for merchants to significantly boost demand generation and sales for their business.
As an example of how sellers could use Twitter Buy buttons, Bigcommerce pointed to one of its merchants, t-shirt retailer The Mountain – it could use Buy Now on game days to increase demand for team shirts, or sell items tied in to events such as the recent eclipse of the moon.
YouTube meanwhile is bringing shopping to its videos, according to Wired magazine. “If you, say, watch a video review of a camera that takes especially stunning portraits, you may see an ad pop up that will take you straight to an option to buy it.”
You can learn more about Twitter’s initiative on its website, where it links to a page that links to the ecommerce platforms with which it’s partnering with on the Buy buttons.
