Though it has been around for almost two months, people is just recently finding out about Collections, a new Twitter feature set to revolutionize the way we shop online. Developed to “make it easier to discover products and places”, the feature is slowly popping up in the US for a few selected curators and appears as new step into the e-commerce field for the company.
After introducing the Buy button last fall, Twitter knew it wouldn’t be enough – after all, who buys something based on one single tweet? That’s where Collections comes in. The idea is fairly simple: to create pages around certain products to provide more information. Basically, it’s like having the product page of an e-commerce platform right in your Twitter feed (a smart move for the company, that’s obviously seeking to increase the time its users spend on the site.
Such “product pages” include several tweets combined into one with photos, descriptions and the star of them all, the Buy button. Haven’t seen them yet? Give it some time. Twitter is slowly rolling out the feature and working with a few influencers and brands to provide this kind of content. You can visit Nike, Arianna Grande or TechCrunch profiles on Twitter to check how they work.
Like the idea? Of course you do! The feature’s potential is huge and it’ll definitely have a dramatic impact on the e-commerce market. If brands start taking advantage of this feature (which they’ll surely do), Twitter users will have a direct tunnel to the products from the brands they love. The purchase process will be easier and, in fact, it’ll turn the long Google searches for info into just memories.
It could certainly mean a victory for Twitter as well for the brands. The former could see how its users and the amount of time they spend on the platform increases day after day. For their part, brands can make purchasing more social and fan engagement smoother. In fact, the brands could seamlessly blend a clear marketing approach with announcements and information to reach its targeted audience more easily.
Although it’s hard to tell when Collections will be available to a wider userbase, Twitter is certain that it will push it forward more and more in the coming months. In fact, you can check if you can do one – and how to do it – here. So, you’d better start to get used to it, because once everyone realizes the potential behind it, digital marketing and social marketing will surely change and evolve.
