“Buy” buttons are coming to your stream someday, but most Facebook and Twitter users will be safe from the ultimate impulse-purchase mechanism during this festive season.
While the social media giants have been testing “buy” buttons with some users’ since the summer, the feature won’t be introduced widely for now, according to Facebook and Twitter.
Advertisers have been asking the companies for months in the run up to the holiday-shopping frenzy when they’ll be able to sell products directly to people as they browse their social networks.
The companies could benefit from finding new ways to generate revenue, especially after Facebook and Twitter each reported disappointing earnings last quarter.
Americans are expected to spend more than $100 billion shopping online during the holidays, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade association. This would have been a perfect time to launch the new shopping feature and grab a bigger slice of consumer spending. The companies won’t get a better opportunity for another year.
Facebook and Twitter acknowledge that they're missing out on a potential new revenue stream during the biggest shopping season of the year. But Nathan Hubbard, Twitter's e-commerce head, said he wants to create the right tool before making it available to everyone. "Interest from sellers is not our challenge now,” Hubbard said in an interview. "It's how we roll that out at scale and really optimize the user experience."
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
