Twitter tests ‘buy now’ button in tweets

Twitter is experimenting with posting tweets about products that have a ‘buy now’ button. It is still unclear whether the social network service will roll out the option broadly to its users.

The website Re/code reports that they encountered a number of tweets in the Twitter mobile app that contained ‘buy now’ buttons. The buttons would not yet redirect the user to a web store or another destination, but other Twitter users would in certain cases end up at a web shop if they clicked. The products shown would previously have been shared on Fancy, an app that focuses on promoting popular products.

It is not yet clear whether Twitter will introduce the buy buttons in all its apps and on its websites; the company declined to comment on Re/code’s findings.

What is known is that the social network service is looking for new sources of income and that ecommerce activities are one of the possibilities for this: the bought for 73 million euros in Tap Commerce, a retargeting company. Twitter has, among other things, signed a deal with Amazon that allows customers of the web store to add a product to Amazon’s shopping cart via a tweet.