Earlier in the year Twitter let us know that they were testing out the potential for shopping on their platform. This week Twitter have announced the launch of a pilot of the Shop Module, a feature that allows them to explore how shoppable profiles can create a pathway from talking about and discovering products on Twitter to actually purchasing them.
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 Twitter.
Twitter wouldn’t be the first or last social media platform to test the waters for ecommerce. It is not surprising that social media platforms would want to take advantage of their expansive member base. Eerily, even before the Pandemic began businesses selling on social media sites and apps were predicted to rise and given the current circumstances, these platforms have been pushed to develop shopping features that meet the new much larger demand for ecommerce.
Currently, Twitter are starting small with a handful of brands in the United States. People in the U.S. who use Twitter in English on iOS devices will be able to see the Shop Module. As they learn, Twitter is creating deeper partnerships with businesses that reflect whom they’re building for with a new Merchant Advisory Board. The board will consist of brands that have established themselves as best-in-class examples of merchants on Twitter. With their partnership, Twitter hope to more easily address the needs of businesses of any size or vertical in their product innovation.
