Twitter to pilot direct shopping feature on brand pages

Twitter is the latest social media giant to tap into the red-hot online shopping world with a new pilot feature allowing users to buy products directly from brands’ profiles.

In a Twitter blog, the company said it had previously explored the idea of adding a ‘Buy Now’ button, product pages and product collections way back in 2015, but ultimately decided against it to “focus on other areas”.

But now the company has revisited those ideas, and as a first step has launched a pilot of the ‘Shop Module’, a feature that allows Twitter users to buy products directly from the pages of brands.

The ‘Shop Module’ is a dedicated space at the top of a profile where businesses can showcase their products. Users can scroll through the carousel of products and tap through on a single product to learn more and purchase without leaving Twitter.

The company will initially trial the feature with “a handful of brands in the US”. Users in the US using Twitter in English on iOS devices will be able to use the feature.

Twitter is the latest social media giant to explore ways to integrate shopping features into its platform, following in the footsteps of Snapchat, Tiktok, Pinterest and Facebook.

In June, Facebook said it would add new shopping tools to its platforms, including AI-powered visual discovery on Instagram. The feature, which is still being tested, would allow users to find similar products, such as a floral dress, just by tapping an image of a dress they like.