Twitter partners with Shopify; continues to grow its e-commerce business

Twitter has entered into a deal with Shopify to allow its merchants to sell products directly on Twitter. The leading cloud-based, multichannel commerce platform revealed this in a press statement today.

The deal will see Twitter launch a sales channel app that will be made available to all of Shopify’s U.S. merchants through its app store. This is an integration that will keep a seller’s Twitter profile page updated with direct links to the products they have for sale.

While explaining the mechanism, The Verge’s reporter noted that any Shopify merchant who install the new Twitter add-on can connect his or her Twitter account with Shopify and then start building out a store on Twitter with the platform’s Shop Module.

The new add-on automatically loads a merchant’s products from Shopify onto Twitter, which then appear in a carousel on the Twitter profile. Users can browse through or expand the carousel to view up to 50 products — selecting a product redirects users to the merchant’s website for purchase.

Shop owners can also use the Twitter add-on to sync their Shopify product inventory with Twitter. This should eliminate the need for merchants to update each item individually when making changes to their products’ details or as items go in and out of stock.

In an interview Bloomberg, Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s President said that Shopify retailers will be able to sell their goods on Twitter two ways: by displaying as many as five products on their Twitter profile or by using Twitter Shops, a pilot feature that lets vendors advertise as many as 50 products in a tab linked to their profile. 

Recently, Shopify announced a partnership with Facebook to introduce the Shop Section on Facebook Pages and the Facebook “Buy” call-to-action button. In June, Shopify announced that its merchants can sell on Pinterest using Buyable Pins.

Shopify Inc. is adding Twitter Inc. to its growing list of social media partners as it aims to help businesses reach buyers across a range of online platforms.