Shopping through tweets
Twitter
is looking towards e-commerce as a possible new stream of income and in
order to stimulate sales through the social network, it will introduce
Twitter Product Cards. Instantly displaying the qualities and price of a
product should decrease the step towards an actual sale.
This
strategy is remarkably similar to what networking site Pinterest has
recently done: Pinterest allows for detailed product information – like
price, availability and possible purchase points – to be added to shared
items.
New insights into purchase behaviour
Expanding
the purchase possibilities gives Twitter more insight into its users’
interests and purchase behaviour, information which benefits Twitter’s
website advertising, representing the bulk of its income at an estimated
583 million dollars (436 million euro) for 2013.
Hubbard
stated he does not want to compete with e-tailers and payment services,
but strives towards collaboration. In any case, an additional growth
path suits Twitter just fine as it prepares an IPO (initial public
offering) for the stock market.
