Twitter's New E-Commerce Strategy: Here Is What You Need To Know

Twitter IncTWTR

introduced back in September 2014, ads in its feed with a corresponding "buy" button, which gives merchants the opportunity to sell their products to consumers without leaving the platform.

Twitter hoped its initiative would result in its social media platform taking on an e-commerce component and also become a virtual shopping mall. However, the Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter will scrap the initiative for the time being.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a Twitter spokesman, reported that Twitter's management has decided to no longer allocate company resources toward supporting and developing ads for the foreseeable future. Instead, the company is eyeing a new ad product offering, which appears to have seen initiation success with retail partners.

The publication continued that Twitter will focus on customer service and commerce-related ads, calling dynamic product ads. These ads show users an image of a product that they previously viewed on the advertiser's website but did not follow through with a purchase.

When a user clicks on the ad, they will be redirected back to the specific product page on the retailer's website.

At time of writing, shares of Twitter were trading down 1.01 percent at $14.25.

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