Twitter Unveils New Ecommerce Feature

Following the introduction of its "buy button" in September, Twitter has rolled out a new ecommerce feature called Twitter Offers. 

In a blog post, the company explained that it sees this as a way to explore and test how "advertisers to connect with consumers on Twitter and convert them to loyal customers in their stores, on their websites and in their apps."

Beginning this week, U.S. users who see a Twitter Offer pop up in their feed can add it to their credit or debit cards and then redeem that offer by using their cards in the retailer's online stores or brick-and-mortar locations, without any additional coupons. 

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On the business end, Twitter's aim is to create a low barrier of entry for retailers to participate (no extra software or add-ons to their existing payment processes) and for advertisers to use the offers to measure the effectiveness of the promotions. The deal option is available to marketers that purchase a Promoted Tweet, which show up in users' Twitter feeds.

As far as privacy concerns go, the company says that once a credit or debit card is used to obtain an offer, the card in is encrypted and users can remove the stored info from their account whenever they like.

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This is not Twitter's first foray into the ecommerce space. In September, it began testing a "Buy" button that allows users to purchase products from a select group of retailers directly within a tweet. 

Facebook has also been dipping into the ecommerce space. Its own "Buy" button was referenced this week in an announcement on the social network's latest privacy policy update (which goes into effect on Jan. 1). The company wrote "we're testing a Buy button that helps people discover and purchase products without leaving Facebook. We're also working on new ways to make transactions even more convenient." 

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