Twitter is capitalizing on users’ growing interest in ecommerce by experimenting on new shopping features. The experimental feature which has been confirmed by Twitter, will display tweets that link out to ecommerce product page, according to TechCrunch. The feature which takes the form of a new Twitter card, will have a “Shop” button and integrate product details directly into your tweets. This will include the product’s name, shop’s name, and product pricing.
As you can see from the screenshot, which was posted by social media commentator Matt Navarra, a new Twitter Card contained links to product pages on a shop’s website. Twitter has confirmed to TechCrunch that the tweet is an example of a new treatment for “organic” tweets that are focused on ecommerce.
The experiment may not be unconnected with a statement made by Twitter Revenue Lead, Bruce Falck, during an event a couple of days ago. In the statement per TechCrunch, Falck said: “We’re…starting to explore ways to better support commerce on Twitter.”
“We know people come to Twitter to interact with brands and discuss their favorite products. In fact, you may have even noticed some businesses already developing creative ways to enable sales on our platform,” Falck said.
“This demand gives us confidence in the power of combining real-time conversation with an engaged and intentional audience. Imagine easily discovering, and quickly purchasing, a new skincare product or trendy sneaker from a brand you follow with only a few clicks,” he added.
Still on experiments, Twitter has pulled the plug on its threaded reply—a feature that never really got off the mark. Actually, it was an experiment while it lasted, and the fact that Twitter did not consider it good enough for a wider roll out shows it really should not have been added in the first place.
In a tweet last December, the microblogging company said threaded replies made it “harder to read and join conversations.” The essence of adding it in the first place was to make conversations better—but it never worked. The user feedback it got from experimenting with the feature helped Twitter to arrive at a decision.
“We asked and you let us know this reply layout wasn’t it, as it was harder to read and join conversations,” the social media giant wrote in a tweet. “So we’ve turned off this format to work on other ways to improve conversations on Twitter.”
Hopefully some more useful ways of getting involved in conversations is added pretty soon. Until then, I guess we are stuck with scrolling down endlessly just to find out what exactly is the exact reason for the conversation in the first place.
