Turning itself toward becoming an e-commerce platform—and taking a page from Amazon’s playbook—Twitter now offers Product Collections and Product Pages. The former is to draw users into specific commerce windows to buy, while the latter is for promotional information and sharing of shopping experiences. Twitter announced the new features as a way to “make it easier to discover products and places. It describes Collections, which rolled out in the US in June, as a test: “This is just the beginning. In the coming months we’ll be testing more new experiences we hope give you the most personalized and relevant information about the places and things you want to explore.” Nike has a collection offering LeBron James items, reports Marketing Magazine, and Disney is selling Pixar goods. Clicking on any product takes users to a purchase page on the brand’s site. Choosing the “Go there” leads to “View” of specific brand shops, while “Browse Collection” brings up Product Page tweets. Barbour will be the first UK brand to use Twitter Collections, reports Marketing Magazine. Timed ahead of the Rugby World Cup, Barbour will let users browse its collection modeled by former England Rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, starting August 17. “Given how engaged rugby fans tend to be on social media, we decided that the Barbour for Land Rover Rugby range would be the perfect collection to launch on Twitter Collections,” said Joanna Lambert, global digital marketing manager at Barbour. Other collections include TechCrunch’s 5 smart kitchen gadgets, pop star Demi Lovato’s recommendations and Game of Thrones-related products. Collections can also be used for breaking news. The US Guardian (@GuardianUS) made a collection of a Q&A session about its NSA stories. Reporters responded to questions with hashtag #MyNSAQuestion, and all responses were inserted into the timeline. And then there’s the ultimate Collection from Twitter itself—making every tweet in history scannable. Twitter went so far as to quote Dr. Carl Sagan: “You have to know the past to understand the present.” Facebook, meanwhile, continues to add features to its Dynamic Product Ads format so users can buy directly from the newsfeed. In a blog post this week, Facebook said it’s working so well it’s going to expand the capabilities. Retailers will be able to show related products to people who have purchased an item and optimize offerings for people likely to buy a product, not just those likely to click on it.
Twitter has launched its Product Collections and Product Pages to integrate a shopping experience into its platform. The new features will be available in the coming weeks, according to an announcement on Twitter’s website.