Business

Actions

Twitter Testing 'Buy Now' Button For Automatic Purchases

Twitter announced Monday it has begun testing a buy button that allows users to make purchases without leaving the social media site.
Posted

Resisting the urge to shop just got a little bit more difficult. Geez — it seems like the stores just follow you around these days. 

Especially if you're into social media. And now you can add Twitter to the social-shopping website list. 

KTNV: "Twitter saying they're testing out Twitter shopping. Some users will see the buy button on some tweets today. You can buy things or make donations." 

KNTV: "Twitter's testing this with a few, yet diverse retailers like Home Depot and Wiz Khalifa. Twitter's about 3 percent higher on that news." 

This new feature doesn't come as too much of a surprise. The sites dropped hints over the past few months. At the end of June Re/code noticed a "buy now" button on tweets from shopping app Fancy. At that time, officials from Twitter had no comment. 

The buy button is a bit different than some features Twitter has unveiled in the past, like #AmazonCart. By tweeting that hashtag, users can automatically add items to their Amazon cart without leaving Twitter. 

With the buy-now feature, all users have to do is click the button. They will then be directed to a page for payment info. After using your credit card once with the site, it will automatically save the information. 

Twitter's new feature, of course, doesn't come unmatched. In mid-July Facebook rolled out a buy feature. At first glance, the two are actually pretty similar. 

But Mashable spoke with Nathan Hubbard, Twitter's first head of commerce, who pointed out a couple key differences in Twitter when compared to other sites with similar buy features.

 

"'There is a real-time component to Twitter that isn't replicated anywhere else. I think that lends itself to items with a temporal component [...] or anything with urgency.' Translation: Twitter sees itself as a powerful platform for more spontaneous purchases and limited-time offers."

Some other retailers and artists involved in the testing include Burberry, Brad Paisley and Panic! at the Disco. 

This video includes an image from Getty Images.