Twitter appears to be preparing to add "Buy Now" buttons to tweets in a move to transform its microblogging service into an e-commerce platform.
Such a move would formalize what many companies, including Amazon.com and American Express, have attempted to do by using searchable "hashtags" as triggers for initiating purchases.
The new Buy Now buttons are appearing on the shopping app Fancy, according to the tech news site Re/code. It was not clear whether Fancy had accidentally revealed a Twitter test, or if a payment option is now embedded in Twitter.
Tapping on the Buy Now button did not work in Re/code's test, but others who tried it reported it linked the customer to a checkout page within the Twitter app, Re/code reports. Twitter did not respond to an inquiry about the payment button prior to deadline.
Fancy indicated in February that consumers at some point would be able to purchase products through the Twitter app or website. A month earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter was working with payments processor Stripe to develop payment capabilities on the microblogging system.
Of course, Twitter is not alone amongst the social network landscape in seeing the potential of adding payments capabilities.
Facebook enables payments for developers of games and other apps that run on its platform, and the company recently hired PayPal President David Marcus to run its messaging service.
Portland, Ore.-based Chirpify handles payments over social media, establishing payments functions through hashtags or marketing campaigns as well as establishing its own direct payment processing option. Chirpify also enables in-stream payments on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
