Twitter announces ‘Buy’ button for your feed

Businesses have been using Twitter as part of their marketing and brand promotion for years. It’s one of the most effective tools for interacting with customers and spreading an on-brand message. Soon, though, Twitter could be doing a whole lot more for businesses.

Twitter today announced that users will soon be able to buy products directly from their Twitter feed thanks to a new ‘Buy’ button. The company is calling it ‘an early step’ in its effort to make shopping from your mobile device convenient and easy and is promising users access to items and offers they can’t get anywhere else. The news follows Twitter’s acquisition of CardSpring, which the company called “the future of commerce on Twitter.” Today’s  announcement is the first consumer-facing announcement related to commerce that Twitter has made.

The process looks to be fairly simple. You see a product you like in a tweet and you click ‘Buy’ underneath the product’s photo. The initial purchase will ask for your payment and shipping information. The final step is confirming your purchase. So, a three step process if you’ve never bought anything before.

We’re assuming the ‘input payment information’ screen switches to a ‘confirm payment information’ screen after your first purchase. Either way, purchasing items only takes a few clicks. Check the video below for a demo:

Right now, the Buy button is only visible to a limited number of users in the United States, but Twitter promises this number will grow over time. Unfortunately, Twitter didn’t offer any information on international availability, so we don’t know when the functionality is coming to Canadians. Launch partners include Fancy, Gumroad, Musictoday, and Stripe. US users that see the button are advised to look out for offers or products from the likes of Burberry, GLAAD, Home Depot, and (RED), as well as nonprofits like Donors Choose and musicians like Demi Lovato to Megadeth.

[source]Twitter[/source]