‘Twitter Offers’ allow U.S. users to claim
discounts from tweets
discounts from tweets
Twitter is
expanding its reach into commerce with a new tool called “Offers.”
Advertisers can post
promotions and discounts in users’ Twitter feeds, whether or not the users follow
those merchants on the short-messaging service.
To redeem an offer,
customers enter their credit or debit card information. They then use the same
card to redeem the promotion in a store. After they do, they will get cash back
on their card. For now, the feature only works in the U.S. but Twitter could
expand it to other countries.
San Francisco-based
Twitter says it will encrypt and store the credit card information but users
can remove it any time.
The company has slowly
been branching out into shopping. It launched a “Buy”
button in September that lets users make purchases or donate money
to charities without leaving Twitter. Facebook is
also testing a similar tool.
Pushing into
e-commerce could help Twitter add another source of revenue as the digital
advertising market grows and more people shop online. It has been trying to
increase its user base amid some concerns of a slowdown. It had 284 million
monthly active users at the end of September, an increase of 23 percent form a
year earlier.