Twitter Inc said it is experimenting with allowing companies to display up to 50 products for sale in their profiles, in an effort to win a portion of the $45 billion US market for so-called social e-commerce.
Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta, are pioneers in social commerce, enabling merchants to create virtual stores and sell products.
As with every social platform, Twitter is gradually evolving its approach to e-commerce, integrating product listings into the app.
Twitter clarified that beta testing – free – of its stores are available to select businesses in the United States. It is also visible to people who use the Twitter app on their iPhones.
The new Twitter Stores option offers a “View Shop” call-to-action button within business profiles, which users can click to view all products the company has listed for in-app purchases.
US telecommunications company Verizon, one of the test partners, displayed iPhone cases and wireless chargers in its Twitter store. After viewing the product across the platform, users are redirected to the merchant’s website for payment.
Twitter Stores allow sellers to view more products through their accounts
The experiment expands on a previous feature called the Shopping Module that the platform began testing last year. This feature allowed brands to display up to five products at the top of their profiles across the platform.
The San Francisco-based company is experimenting with live shopping. This option allows people to purchase clothing, accessories, and other items while watching live videos from the brand about products.
Like all of Twitter’s Shopping Features, Shopping Module, Direct Shopping, and Shopping Manager, the Stores are part of a larger effort to better support professionals of all kinds, from small businesses and creatives to big brands, who come to the platform to do business.
And people talk about products on the platform. As a result, the company wants stores to be the home for merchants across its platform where they can organize product listings for the platform’s audience. They can also rely on product discussions that occur across the service to give shoppers an edge where the conversation can become a purchase.
