Twitter Abandons Buy Now Button

In 2015 Twitter began testing a Buy button as part of the inevitable push into e-commerce. Twitter said initially that “a small percentage” of U.S. users would be included in the testing and they aim to “make shopping from mobile devices convenient and easy.”

In the announcement Twitter said, “users will get access to offers and merchandise they can’t get anywhere else and can act on them right in the Twitter apps for Android and iOS” Also, on the other side of the coin, “sellers will gain a new way to turn the direct relationship they build with their followers into sales.”

For Twitter, already a phenomenal tool for connecting organizations and individuals, it seemed like a natural step towards e-commerce integration.

Fast forward to 2017 and the can’t-miss Buy Now button has been phased out, dead, gone!

Why?

In January of 2017 TechCrunch reported that Customers of Shopify were receiving notices informing them that the Twitter sales channel is getting shut down “as a result of the Twitter team pivoting way from their e-commerce focus.”