Twitter has become the latest tech player to jump on the shoppability trend with the launch of Twitter Shops. Before diving in, what is “shoppability?” As frequent Localogy readers know, this is the trend where transactional functionality is infused in everything from Instagram Stories to YouTube videos.
Back to Twitter’s latest move, its Shops feature will let merchants feature up to 50 products on their Twitter profile. This takes form in a “View Shop” button that sits above a given merchant’s tweets and takes visitors to a Twitter-hosted page where they can browse and purchase wares.
The goal is for organic Twitter interaction to lead to action, thus making it a place to discover products and shop. This would bring Twitter closer to the persona that Instagram and Pinterest have cultivated among users, and correspondingly opens the door for more monetization (more on that in a bit).
Master Plan
Going deeper on Twitter Shops, it will be set up so that merchants can upload their products using a CSV file. That can contain up to 10,000 products which they can then rotate in and out of the 50 showcased spots noted above. This lets them adjust to things like seasonality and sales.
But more important is how this integrates into the existing and evolving commerce functions in Twitter’s Shopping Manager. Backing up, Twitter launched a “Shop Module” last summer that let merchants similarly spotlight products in their profile. However, it was limited to five products.
Separately, Twitter has been testing a new livestream shopping platform for QVC-like functionality. It launched in beta with Walmart as the first big partner, which resulted in streamed shopping events that achieved up to 2 million views. Other brands testing it include Samsung and Gopuff.
The point in all of the above is that Twitter is cultivating an entire suite of shopping features. That list will continue to grow and, more importantly, converge. As noted, the glue that holds them together as an entry point for merchants is the Shopping Manager. This will hose all-things shopping.
Panning back even further to see Twitter’s master plan beyond shopping, all of the above represents a drive towards more diversified revenue channels. This includes other monetization moves including creator tools (Super Follows) subscriptions (Twitter Blue) and newsletters (Revue).
Small Jump
Speaking of monetization, how does Twitter Shops make money? The feature is free, but the goal is likely to use it as a hook for merchants to deepen their presence on Twitter as part of their marketing mix. From there, it’s a small jump to paid amplification through Twitter’s standard ad offerings.
Also speculating forward, one thing we expect to see as Shops evolves is more native integration. In other words, the feature bounces users’ to a given merchant’s website to transact. Twitter could conversely offer a more elegant shopping flow if the entire checkout happens under its roof.
In fact, that’s what Instagram’s shopping feature does. Besides competitive pressure and quality control over the entire checkout UX, this could bring Twitter into another opportunity: payments. And that’s the most strategic path towards the vaunted super app status. Twitter is primed to move in that direction.
Meanwhile, Twitter Shops is in beta in the U.S. in English on iOS, with launch partners that include @Verizon, @ArdenCove, @LatinxInPower, and @AllIDoIsCookUS. This list will grow as Twitter onboards more partners, leading up to the full release that will come at an unnamed point later this year.
