Twitter Tests “Buy Now” Button (Briefly)

Will it soon be possible to directly purchase goods through Twitter?  It looks as though that might be the way the e-commerce wind is blowing now that a “Buy Now,” button has been spotted on Twitter, reports Recode.

During a brief period yesterday, Twitter users getting tweets from a shopping app called Fancy, saw a brand new option—the choice to purchase the product that Fancy had tweeted them (though granted, the sneakers were listed at $170 M sale price—so perhaps it was only for the highly motivated) with the new button. Recode further reported that clicking on the button had no effect, though a source did tell the publication that an earlier attempt had led to a check out page.

This is not the fist time Fancy and Twitter have been associated—six months ago Recode also published a mock-up used to pitch Twitter on what a Twitter e-commerce integration via Fancy would look like for users.

The buy now buttons disappeared nearly as quickly as they appeared and now are replaced with buttons that encourage users to download the Fancy app. It does not seem possible that Fancy could have inserted the button without Twitter’s consent leading to wide speculation that users are seeing the beginning of Twitters wade into the e-commerce arena.

Twitter has been under tremendous pressure to monetize its extremely popular social media service—so far the company has looked mainly to advertising in the form of sponsored tweets as a revenue generator.

As of press time, Twitter had no comment on why the “Buy Now,” button was there or if consumers can expect to see it back anytime soon.

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