Pushing customer interaction a step further, Twitter is arming merchants with the ability to issue a direct call to action via the social network's new "buy" button.
It's only available to a small group of users and has been provided to a select number of 28 artists and brands right now, but Twitter says it expects to widen the reach of its buy button soon. The social networking site says the new option available to tweets requires just a few steps.
"In our test, an entire purchase can be completed in just a few taps. After tapping the "Buy" button, you will get additional product details and be prompted to enter your shipping and payment information," says Twitter. "Once that's entered and confirmed, your order information is sent to the merchant for delivery."
Twitter has hinted of its ambitions to release a buy button. And with Facebook's latest attempt to push an integrated shopping feature to it's content, Nathan Hubbard, Twitter's first head of commerce and former CEO of Ticketmaster, is leading Twitter's push of the buy button during his first year working for the social networking company.
Hubbard indicates that Twitter won't promote itself as a full-service retail outlet with the buy feature. Rather, Hubbard says Twitter's new shopping option makes use of the site's "real-time component," what he calls a unique feature, suggesting that feature will allow users to seize on limited-edition and niche products.
"This is a bit of an extension of our brand or direct-response advertising business," Hubbard says. "What we want to understand is, are there specific products that will do better [on Twitter]?... I'm not sure if someone is going to push the 'buy' button for a vehicle, but someone may push order on a ride in real-time."
Twitter assured its users that it will protect the financial details customers entrust to the site when using the new buy button. Users will have the option to securely store financial data to ensure they don't miss out on small-quantity sales, but they can also remove the information at any time, according to Twitter.
"We built this test experience with your trust and security at the forefront," says Twitter. "Your payment and shipping information is encrypted and safely stored after your first transaction, so you can easily buy on Twitter in the future without having to re-enter all of your information. Of course, you can always remove this information from your account. Your credit card is processed securely and won't be shared with the seller without your permission."
