Twitter Turns Social Media Into A Shopping Experience

This week,

a partnership with payments processor Stripe Inc. that will let the social media site's users buy goods using a 140 character tweet. The deal is expected to significantly boost Twitter's user engagement and could also help the site grow its user base.

By allowing users to buy goods directly through Twitter, the company stands to make between 8 and 10 percent of the purchase price. That could help Twitter boost its bottom line as social media advertising is more difficult to generate revenue from. The commission earned through direct transactions is much higher than that paid out for directing traffic to merchant websites.

Twitter's decision to add a "buy" option to the site is likely to draw in many retail partners as it makes purchasing goods faster and easier for consumers. It can be difficult to convert an advertisement into a sale when customers must visit a new site as it gives them more time to research and consider their decision. However with a buy option available at the moment the customer is interested, retailers can capitalize on impulse buys and discourage comparison shopping.

On Tuesday, Twitter announced that it would be adding the option to make political donations on its site through a partnership with Stripe Inc. as well. The little blue bird won't get a cut of the donations, but is likely to benefit from politicians paying to promote their tweets. With social media becoming an increasingly important part of candidates' strategies ahead of the 2016 elections, Twitter is expecting that this feature will not only increase revenue, but draw in more and more users as candidates use the site to discuss big issues and ask for donations.