Twitter Expands To Cards

There hasn’t been much chirping from Twitter executives about its payments plans recently, but on Tuesday (Nov. 25) the company announced its newest link into the payments world: “Twitter Offers.”

Twitter acquired the mobile payment system CardSpring in July but didn’t reveal plans about how the move would shift the social media company further into payments. The announcement of Twitter Offers gives that decision leverage and shows Twitter is getting serious about its move into the commerce world. A Twitter spokesperson said that CardSpring had already built the card integration by the time Twitter acquired it.

“This announcement’s aimed specifically at businesses advertising on Twitter — through Twitter Offers, those companies will be able to offer cashback rewards in their tweets, and those rewards will tie directly into consumers’ credit and debit cards,” TechCrunch reported.

By linking rewards right to the consumer’s cards, Twitter has given itself a new name in the social payment space. Consumers can stay on the application while adding a payment card. The consumer can then add an offer to their card via Twitter, which is then automatically added to the card that’s linked to the Twitter account when needed for checkout, eliminating the need for coupons. That cash-back savings then appears on the user’s card statement. It also gives retailers a way to keep tabs on consumer shopping behavior since it allows businesses to track if their Twitter ads are translating to purchases.

“By leveraging Twitter’s robust targeting capabilities, advertisers can tailor their promotions and campaigns to the right audience, while optimizing for performance,” Twitter said in a blog post.

And what about security? Card information is encrypted and securely stored, Twitter said, and consumers can remove the account information at anytime. Twitter Offers are being tested on both desktop and mobile in the U.S., and according to Twitter’s blog post the company is “planning to work with a handful of brands to begin testing this new feature during the holidays in the U.S. Stay tuned for more information of those partners in the near future.”