After months of reports and rumors, Twitter unveiled their first commercial product – their “Buy Now” button. Twitter is testing through a small sampling of merchandiser partners how well the “Buy Now” button will work. This is the firststep Twitter is taking toward building a shopping function using mobile devices. Their goal is to make shopping convenient and unique. Consumers can expect access to special offers and merchandise they can’t get anywhere else when they use the Twitter apps for Android and iOS.
The goal is for sellers to turn the direct relationship they’ve worked hard to build with their followers on Twitter into sales. Twitter has partnered with social shopping company Fancy (@fancy), digital content seller Gumroad (@gumroad), fan commerce company Musictoday (@Musictoday) and payments company Stripe (@stripe) as platforms for this initial test.
The main goal of the purchase is ease of use. You can purchase directly from Twitter using an easy to see “Buy Now” button and the entire purchase can be completed in only a few taps. Once you see the item you want, you tap the “Buy Now” button for additional product details and will be prompted to enter your shipping and payment information. Once that’s entered and confirmed, your order information is sent to the merchant for delivery.
After the first purchase payment your shipping and payment information is encrypted and safely stored for future purchases so you can skip re-entering information. With security breaches an issue, Twitter has given that a lot of thought. Your credit card is processed securely and only shared with the seller with your permission.
At the start, only a small percentage of Twitter users will get to see the button that will allow them to purchase goods and offers from a group of partners that includes Beartooth, Burberry, Home Depot, Keith Urban, Red, along with other stores, music artists and charities.
Mobile commerce is expected to claim 19% of the $304 billion spent on ecommerce in the U.S. this year. Facebook is conducting its own buy button test. Seems both social platforms want to establish themselves early in social commerce shopping arena using mobile devices. This may help them when Pinterest comes out with their own “Buy” button option. Many analysts think Pinterest is the likely winner when it comes to commercial potential of any of the big platforms.
This seems like a likely growth opportunity for Twitter. Not only is the “Buy Now” button a revenue source on its own, but when Twitter begins to drive sales for companies, it seems reasonable to think more companies will be interested in using Twitter and will also begin to advertise more.