Shopify's "Buy Now" on Twitter

This morning I briefly came across an article about the new “buy now” button on Twitter. It definitely intrigued me but it was not until I actually sat down tonight to look at the fashion-tech news that I truly considered the implications of this, not only for e-commerce retailers, but for the future trajectory of social media as a whole. 

Shopify is a Canadian based company that develops software for online stores and retail POS systems. It has a range of clients from emerging startups like fashion brand Good As Gold to growing small businesses like Skinny Teatox. With the new partnership with Twitter, Shopify merchants can tweet any product and it will include the buy button that lets users “make purchases within their Twitter timeline”. Similar buttons have already been implemented for Pinterest and Facebook.

As a frequent e-commerce shopper and aspiring digital marketer myself, I recognize the importance of social media platforms as a way of reaching out to potential customers and convincing them to convert. However at the same time, I am really thinking about how this trend of “buy now” buttons everywhere will come to impact the quality of content and interactions by these brands on social media. Especially for fashion and beauty brands, I believe that it is extremely important to cultivate a strong connection with customers and communicate with them the brand’s story and lifestyle as a part of leading the customer on the path to purchase. With more and more of these features that allow customers to purchase directly from social media sites, I feel as if the opportunities for true customer relationship development may be hindered, if companies are not careful in using it. I agree that to a great extent, it becomes very convenient for customers to click a button and be led to purchase. Yet at the same time if brands focus too much on just generating the click to purchase and ease off on still enhancing the various touchpoints with the customer, what they may end up facing is a series of one-time purchases, but not high customer retention. 

With the current movement of technology and mobile, it is inevitable that our apps will only continue to be crowded with “buy now!”, “click this!”, “go here!” call to actions. What I feel is extremely critical though is that companies do not take this as a means of being lazy and just bombarding timelines with “buy now!” Tweets. They must continuously strive to build on their brand stories and give potential customers a reason to come back!