Is Twitter Launching a Shopping Service?

Each social media outlet wants to differentiate itself by providing services they believe are unique. This of course doesn't last long because a different variation gets adopted by another company and it becomes part of the overall environment in which everyone seems to be providing the same product. Eventually they're all after the same market as they try to monetize their platform with advertising or selling products. While these companies might have shunned any type of commerce before they went public, the pressure of shareholders is forcing them to reconsider those positions. Apparently Twitter might have been planning to move into e-commerce as far back as June of this year.

The "buy now" button spotted by Re/Code in tweets, with links to retail site Fancy, might have been the subtle hint the company was throwing in the direction of its users as well as potential business partners.

Fast-forward to August 6th as TheNextWeb.com reported a handful of users having noticed a dormant setting for payment and shipping inside the company's Android (News - Alert) application. According to the report, the option was buried inside the settings menu and as of this time it cannot be activated or opened.

The accidental or intentional placement of these settings might be a sign of things to come for Twitter (News - Alert).  The recent acquisition of CardSpring, a payments infrastructure company that enables developers to add applications to the payment network, is also another sign. The CardSpring solution is designed to simplify the process of creating card linked services that help merchants connect with their customers. It has also announced the creation of a new product that will bring local merchants with leading publisher to create online-to-offline promotions designed to drive  new customers, repeat business, and greater spend to their stores.

If applied properly, Twitter could use the technology of its acquisition for the inevitable implementation of e-commerce. The pressure from shareholders to gain the recent losses since its high of $74.73 in December 2013 could also be a factor the company is looking to get into commerce to generate revenues.

The company did not make any comments regarding this issue either way, so we will all have to wait and see if that buy button will suddenly appear during the holiday season.