Twitter continues to beef up its shopping features, this time with functionality that supports the “drop culture” already happening on its platform.
Called simply “Product Drops,” the new feature essentially helps followers remember when a product is dropping so they can be among the first to get it. When a merchant tweets about an upcoming launch, followers will see a “Remind me” button at the bottom of the Tweet. If they tap that button, on launch day they’ll get an in-app notification 15 minutes before and at the time of the drop, alerting them to visit the merchant’s website for whatever coveted product has just arrived.
Among the brands already planning drops using the new feature are Dior, Fossil, Jeff Staple, Home Depot, The LEGO Group and Union Los Angeles.
Before committing to notifications, followers also can find out more details about the product by clicking on the merchant’s tweet, which will open a full product detail page (PDP). These full-page in-app PDPs will include price, pictures, product description and a clickable hashtag to see what other shoppers on Twitter are saying about the product.
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“People come to Twitter to talk about products and product drops every day,” said Justin Hoang, Staff Product Manager, and Siddharth Rao, Engineering Manager at Twitter in a blog post announcing the new feature. “And merchants have long been dropping products on Twitter without any native product support. We’re excited to change that and introduce new shopping features that empower shoppers to stay on top of the launches that matter most to them, and provide merchants with another way to engage shoppers around big product moments.”
At launch Product Drop is only available for U.S. shoppers who use Twitter in English and on iOS devices.
Twitter isn’t the only platform beefing up its shopping capabilities. New functionalities are rolling out seemingly daily across social media sites and other forums to facilitate contextual commerce across all areas of the internet. Some recent additions include:
- Vimeo has launched a series of new interactive video features for its enterprise users, including clickable hotspots, custom overlays to place interactive content and information right on videos, and an “add to cart” button that can be integrated into the video experience;
- In addition to a host of other new features designed to make it easier to discover products directly on its search engine, Google is also making it easier to buy the products. The company’s new checkout flow means that once a shopper finds something they like on Google Search, they will be brought to the retailer’s or brand’s website, and the item will be in their cart when they arrive; and
- YouTube is expanding its livestreaming capabilities by letting two creators go live at the same time to co-host a live shopping event.
