Twitter Commences ‘Shops’ Feature Tests

Like Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: FB) subsidiary Instagram and China’s video-focused social network TikTok, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) has commenced the test of the ‘Shops’ feature on its platform. The Shops feature enables brands to display their products daily in a “shop section” right above the content page. Then, customers can easily navigate through available products and buy without the hassle of sending direct messages.

Twitter’s Latest Feature

With the new Twitter feature, brands can display up to 50 product pictures in their Shop. They will also have the opportunity of a broader range of items, which will be uploaded through a comma-separated values (CVS) file. The file can contain up to 10,000 products, including product description, cost, and other necessary transaction details. This allows the merchant to seamlessly rotate the selection of the 50 products displayed on their profile. The Twitter Shops feature redirects users to the merchant’s website for a full assessment and sale transaction. The social media company described the feature thus:

“With Twitter Shops, merchants can handpick a collection of up to 50 products to showcase to shoppers on Twitter. The feature, which is free to use, gives people the chance to view products from the profiles of their favorite brands, so when you talk about and discover products on the timeline, you can now browse them on Twitter, too.”

Unlike Instagram, where the feature is earned by brands with high engagement algorithms, the Twitter Shops feature is currently available to a select few businesses in the US and to “Twitterers” on iOS. Twitter will experiment with brands like Arden Cove, Gay Pride Apparel, In Power podcast, All I Do is Cook, and Verizon (NYSE: VZ).

New York-based Verizon displayed iPhone pouches and inductive chargers in its Twitter Shops feature right after the announcement. At this testing period, the new feature is free to use, requiring no payment.

Twitter Shops Feature: an e-Commerce Move

The Twitter Shops feature announcement was made on Wednesday in a bid to have a stake in the $45 billion US market e-commerce. The feature follows the company’s numerous efforts towards the shift to e-commerce. Twitter has been launching new features over time. In November 2020, the company unveiled Twitter Spaces to rival Clubhouse. Barely a year later, it rolled out a set of creator tools. These include Twitter Blue, a subscription service, and Super Follows, a feature that allows Twitterers to monetize their profile. This year, Twitter acquired Revue, a newsletter outlet that enables users to publish and monetize email newsletters. Other new features include Tip Jar and NFT Avatar.

Taking e-commerce exploration a step further, Twitter is also testing with live-streamed video in which luxury shoppers watch live videos of their product of interest while shopping. The videocast began last November, having Walmart as its first pre-release tester. Twitter stated that Walmart recorded over 2 million views during the live streaming, although there are no details on conversion rates.