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Twitter wants its users to do more shopping via tweets.
After more than a year of testing, the social network announced Wednesday that its Buy Now button is available to thousands of retailers in the United States. Twitter is partnering with major e-commerce platforms Shopify, Bigcommerce and Demandware, so merchants using those three platforms can now sell their products on Twitter.
“The goal for all our commerce initiatives on Twitter is simple: make it as easy as possible for businesses to connect directly with, and sell to, customers on Twitter,” said Nathan Hubbard, Twitter’s head of commerce, in a blog post. “With Buy Now, businesses can drive more conversions and remove much of the friction in the mobile purchasing process.”
The expansion gives Twitter’s 316 million users increasing options to not only talk about products on the site, but to buy them there as well. It could also produce a new stream of revenue for Twitter as it struggles to attract more users.
The updated service for the San Francisco-based company comes as competitors including Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook have adopted or tested a buy-button strategy.
Earlier this month, Twitter announced a partnership with another e-commerce platform, Stripe, as part of a test to allow people to buy products via the social network. Users could purchase products in as few as two taps, one on the buy button and a second to confirm the purchase.
The expansion announced Wednesday also loops in more retailers and brands, including Best Buy, Adidas and PacSun, Twitter said.
“Many of our more than 175,000 merchants already use Twitter to engage with their audience and now they can sell directly to them in real-time. This is one more step toward making it better,” said Satish Kanwar, Shopify’s director of product.”Distributed commerce benefits our merchants and consumers and plays a great part in our multichannel strategy.”
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Tom Ebling, chief executive officer at Demandware, said: “Social platforms are at the center of the democratization of retail. Partnering with Twitter and using the Demandware open APIs, Twitter Buy Now will give our retailers a new tool to engage with customers and drive purchases.”
Update, 8:15 p.m. PT: With comments from Shopify executive.
