Twitter announced a new partnership with Shopify in the US, as it looks to expand further into e-commerce. The partnership will allow merchants to link their accounts and display up to 50 products in a carousel format, essentially acting as an online shop window.
This is currently only available to US-based merchants but could roll out to other regions in the upcoming months. The announcement comes as part of the platforms wider strategy to turn conversations into commerce.
According to Twitter:
“We built a Twitter sales channel app, available in Shopify’s App Store and through the Shopify admin, which enables merchants to connect their Twitter account to their Shopify admin and onboard onto our Shopping Manager – the entrypoint to our suite of Twitter Shopping tools where merchants can access and manage our shopping features.”
Shopping features include the carousel product display (allowing up to 50 products at a time) and a dedicated product page, with Shopify-connected listings being updated in real-time.
Who can access Twitter for Business?
Twitter’s Professional Profile tools were initially available to selected merchants but currently, any user can convert their profile to a business account and access additional features. This includes Location Spotlight, which allows brands to feature opening hours, business category, contact info, etc.
Are advertisers utilising Shopify on other platforms?
Shopify revealed that purchases made through partner integrations quadrupled in Q1 2022. Both small and large brands have experimented with live shopping to reach consumers on various social platforms (Facebook, Instagram), but not all advertisers see the appeal, with some stating:
“Platforms like Instagram and YouTube are battling psychology because users haven’t been conditioned to buy directly through them yet” and “When you play with the audience too much or change things too quickly, you can really cause a negative effect” (digiday). But what could UK advertisers expect from the platform?
All Response Media viewpoint
According to GWI (screenshots below), Twitter’s daily usership has dropped to 7th in the most used social platforms. This is a far cry from 5/6 years ago when Twitter was top 3 for daily time spent on a social media platform. Compounded by the fact that Twitter does not feature in the fastest growing platforms (% change since 2020), there is some indication that the platform is struggling to retain its audience.
Dave Jones
Business Director
Recent talk of an Elon Musk takeover has also now been put to bed (with a pending court case). Musk initially pitched to improve the platform, with plans to grow its user base by 371 million by 2025 and a further 331 million by 2028 – bringing a potential revival. Without this cash injection, and without real change to the user experience, the platform could possibly see a continued drop in usership over the coming years.
Having said this, Twitter has already taken a page out of popular platforms (e.g., Instagram and Snapchat) when launching Fleets in 2021 – their attempt at a story feature. However, it is worth noting that this was quite short-lived as they didn’t see an increase in the number of new people “joining the conversation” as hoped.
More recently, Twitter is really starting to push the e-commerce route, with the launch of ‘Shops’ and also now (currently US-based only) ‘Twitter Shopping’.
As Twitter Shopping is a free-to-market integration, there is certainly no harm in setting this up for brands who are integrated with Shopify, however, we don’t expect this to move the dial too much and therefore priorities should be set accordingly.
Contact us or arrange a consultation to find out how we can use our paid social advertising capabilities to maximise sales and drive the overall success of your campaigns.
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