Twitter Inc (TWTR)’s ‘Buy Button’ Will Boost Revenues

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) has decided to test the waters of the e-commerce world and see if it too can tap some more revenues for itself. The social media platform plans to capitalise on the ease and quickness of its buy-now button to attract more subscribers, sell more ads and get a cut from sales to boost its top line. The new feature was criticized by a panel of analysts at CNBC.

“In a world that is moving to on-demand services and so anything temporal with urgency with perishibility, we think will work on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR),” said Nathan Hubbard, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s head of commerce.

The opinion of the analysts as to how successful this will be for Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) remains divided. Jon Steinberg of Daily Mail North America, while on CNBC, expressed the need for Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)  to focus this feature for retail re-targeting, which will in essence target users who have been shopping on a particular website but may have missed out on a product. Slava Rubin of Indiegogo seemed very sceptical of this new feature and said that Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is losing focus as to whether it is a social media platform, an advertisement company and now even an e-commerce company. CNBC’s Jon Fortt however, believed that this feature will make more users flock to Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR).

Currently, there are 28 partners that are on board this trial phase. It is a versatile crew ranging from retailers like The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD), Burberry, artists including Eminem, Pharell Williams, and Rihana, and even non-profits such as DonorsChoose, Red Cross, and Nature Conservancy.

There are certainly many directions that Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)  can go with this in the future, for example diversifying into non-perishable goods and services like music. Also, the company aims to use holiday shopping seasons and big TV events like Superbowl and the Oscars to promote sales. In essence, it is targeting people who are usually in the media spotlight and hence a part of conversations. This makes their clothes or makeup etc. ideal candidates to be shopped instantly via Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) .

Disclosure: none