Twitter to Enter the Social Commerce Race

Twitter began testing “Shops” in the US this week in an effort to enter the US$45 billion market for social commerce. The new feature will allow companies to showcase up to 50 products to shoppers on Twitter.

“People are already talking about products on Twitter. We want Twitter Shops to be the home for merchants on Twitter where they can intentionally curate a catalog of products for their Twitter audience and build upon the product discussions already happening on our service by giving shoppers a point of action where a conversation can become a purchase,” wrote David Lie-Tjauw, Product Manager, and Justin Hoang, Staff Product Manager, Twitter.

When users visit the profile of a company or merchant that has Twitter Shops enabled, they will see a “view shop” button above their Tweets, which will take them to the merchant’s shop, the company explained. At the moment, Twitter Shops is available to select merchants and managed partners in the US. Those using the app on iPhones are already able to view and interact with the new feature, which is still in beta phase.

During 2H2021, Twitter added new shopping features such as the Shop Module and Live Shopping. The first one allows companies to showcase up to five products directly on their profile, while the latter allows users to buy products while watching a livestream. “Like all of our shopping features, Twitter Shops is part of a larger effort to better support professionals of all kinds, from small businesses and creators to big brands, who come to Twitter to do business,” wrote the company.

Although Twitter has not addressed the potential arrival of Twitter Shops to other countries, the company said that its plans include bringing the feature to more merchants and people in the near future.

Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram are the leaders in social commerce. Globally, this sector is expected to grow three times as fast as traditional commerce and reach US$1.2 trillion by 2025, up from the current US$492 billion, reported Forbes. This trend “is altering who holds power within the global economy,” wrote Steven Lammertink, Council Member, Forbes. He explained that smaller creators, influencers and merchants are increasingly finding new avenues to attract consumers, “tipping the market share in their favor.”

In Mexico, despite social media being people’s main online activity, still 41 percent of Mexicans prefer traditional e-commerce sites over social commerce, according to a survey carried out by Israeli fintech Rapyd.