New Delhi: In a bid to let sellers showcase more products on their profiles, Twitter is rolling out a new beta shopping feature called Twitter Shops. Twitter Shops will let merchants handpick a collection of up to 50 products to showcase to shoppers on the micro-blogging platform. The feature, which is free to use, gives people the chance to view products from the profiles of their favourite brands, so when users talk about and discover products on the timeline, they can browse them on Twitter too.
Twitter's shopping feature will not work like Instagram’s native Shops. Instead, users first click the “View Shop” button above the seller's tweets to visit their shop.
"When you go to the profile of a merchant that has Twitter Shops enabled, you’ll see a 'View shop' button just above their Tweets. When you tap the button, it will open up that merchant’s shop, where you can scroll through items. When you’re ready to purchase, you can click on the product of your choice which will open an in-app browser where you can learn more about the product and checkout on the merchant’s website," Justin Hoang, Staff Product Manager, Twitter and David Lie-Tjauw, Product Manager, Twitter wrote in a blog post.
Twitter Shops is available to select merchants and managed partners in the US Businesses who have their Shops enabled, including @Verizon, @ArdenCove, @LatinxInPower, @GayPrideApp, and @AllIDoIsCookUS. Currently, users in the US who use Twitter in English language only on iPhones will be able to view and interact with Twitter Shops.
"As we continue to test, we’ll explore how to make Shops more discoverable; adding new ways for merchants to tell their brand story through their Shops; expanding the number of products merchants can showcase, and bringing Twitter Shops to more merchants and more people," Hoang and Lie-Tjauw added.