Relay, a new service from payment processing startup Stripe, has launched a way to sell products directly through Twitter in a move that could be of interest to travel agents looking to sell directly on the platform.
Fortune reports that the new service serves as a bridge between merchants that want to sell their products and mobile app developers, allowing shoppers to purchase products directly on Twitter's mobile app without going through a third-party app or launching a web browser.
Merchants using the service can send out shoppable tweets. When a customer sees this tweet in their timeline, they can click on a "buy" button and share a few pieces of information, such as their credit card information and name, in a pop-up window inside the Twitter app.
Wired notes that the new service could lower a big barrier to convincing customers to make purchases on mobile. Only 15 percent of e-commerce sales happen via mobile, according to Wired, despite the growing amount of time customers spend on their mobile devices. Keeping the shopping experience within a single app could ease the buying process for consumers, potentially leading to more mobile purchases.
Relay works via the Stripe application programming interface (API), the MIT Technology Review reports. Customers using the API can embed "buy" buttons in their tweets. As of now Twitter is allowing retailers to run transactions through their feeds for free.
Visit https://stripe.com/relay