Lately, e-commerce has become the centre of attraction for social media platforms. Social media giants such as WhatsApp, TikTok, Facebook have introduced their own e-commerce features and now Twitter seems to join the club.
Twitter started experimenting with shopping on its platform in 2015, however later took a break to focus on other areas. In march this year, the Twitter Investor Relations released a thread on their handle, talking about plans to reinstate shopping features on their platform.
The ‘Shop Module’
Just like the rollout of Professional Profiles in April, this is another feature currently available for the US users only. The Shop Module is a dedicated space at the top of a profile where businesses can showcase their products. When people visit a profile with the Shop Module enabled, they can scroll through the carousel of products and tap through on a single product to learn more and purchase, seamlessly in an in-app browser, without having to leave the platform.
“With this pilot, we’ll get to explore how our engaged, responsive and chatty audience reacts to products that are emotionally charged — like a new jersey from your favorite sports team — or that provide lasting impact — like a new skincare regimen,” Bruce Falck, revenue product lead of Twitter, wrote in the announcement.
Twitter has been focusing on monetisation other than Ads for some time. There have been rumors around a premium based service, called ‘Blue paid subscription’. They also added a Tip Jar feature, so people can support the tweets with money. This feature is currently available to a limited number of users around the world, who tweet in English.