Twitter: It’s where 236 million people go each month to gripe about airlines, share TV spoilers and voice their presidential campaign predictions. Now the social media platform is stepping up its e-commerce capabilities to make mobile shopping easier and more accessible than ever.
The San Francisco-based company announced Friday that it’s testing product pages and curated collections, allowing retailers as well as select celebrity influencers to sell merchandise to followers.
The news follows the long-awaited introduction of Twitter’s “buy” button last fall, not to mention Instagram’s recent “Shop Now” addition to ads and Pinterest’s “buyable pins,” as social media sites continue to make the case that they’re much more than time-sucks and can give brands and retailers a way to reach users beyond promoted tweets.
Target, Nordstrom and Nike are among the launch partners, as well as singer Demi Lovato, beauty vlogger Michelle Phan and athlete LeBron James.
The premise is simple: For example, Nordstrom’s Twitter profile now includes a “Browse Collection” button, where users can see photos and videos about individual items, descriptions, prices and options to buy, as well as relevant tweets and retweets from anyone marked by product-oriented hashtags. Similarly, Lovato’s profile includes her favorite books, apparel and accessories.
“In the coming months we’ll be testing more new experiences we hope give you the most personalized and relevant information about the places and things you want to explore,” Twitter said in a blog post describing the effort, noting that the new e-commerce feature is now live on iOS and Android.