Pinterest, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook have many features in common, than being just social media platforms. One of those features is that these platforms enable businesses operate online, and display their goods for interested customers to purchase.
Twitter has just announced its testing for this new feature – the Shop Module . This feature is found at the top of a brand’s Twitter profile, where there’s a catalogue of goods on display, and a brand’s consumer can make its choice, by just browsing through and clicking any of the products that best fits what they want.
This is just Twitter re-exploring the e-Commerce space, as they first started out in 2014, when they introduced the “Buy Now” button which embedded product links in Tweets.
Analysing the benefits of the new feature on Twitter Analyst Day 2021, Twitter’s Revenue Product Lead, Bruce Falck said: “we know people come to Twitter to interact with brands and discuss their favourite products, imagine easily discovering and purchasing a new skincare product or trendy sneaker from a brand you follow, with only a few clicks!”. In a blog post announcing the Shop Module feature, Falck added that: “Fundamentally, it’ll give us the chance to keep learning about which shopping experiences people prefer on Twitter,”
Twitter itself says: “Many people talk about products on twitter every day, so we’re excited about how this early exploration of the Shop Module can build a bridge between people talking about and discovering products on Twitter to actually purchasing them”.
Although Twitter has not been sleeping on inventions, as it introduced several e-commerce related features earlier this year, like Super Follows , which could potentially connect their fans to products and merchandise, Professional Profiles, which allows businesses to display their address, phone numbers, and operating hours on their profile, it will have to fill in a large gap to be able to level up to its competitors on Instagram, Facebook Marketplace and Shopify. Twitter plans to capitalize on an increasing social commerce consumer market, which boomed during the coronavirus pandemic and is projected to grow over the next three to five years .
As expected with features that are still in their testing stage, The Shop Module feature is only available on iOS devices and in select locations. Also, presently only 12 businesses centred around lifestyle, retail and entertainment products, can use this feature.
