For better or for worse, the technological landscape is redefining the way we do many things in our increasingly “wired” world. Every day, technology is progressing more and more quickly, and it shows absolutely no sign of slowing down. It seems like not a week passes that the capabilities of technology don’t push some new limitation.
While probably not pushing any limits, it’s impossible to ignore the ever-increasing influence of social media. Technology makes things more convenient, and thanks to smart phones and social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+, communicating with people and services has never been quicker or easier.
Twitter will soon be more than a social network, not only allowing us to express 140 characters of our deepest thoughts, but also allowing us to buy thing directly through the social network.
As this new service continues to introduce itself, you may start to notice a “buy” button on some tweets. If a band posts about a new shirt or album, you’ll be able to buy that product right from the tweet. The same can be said about any other product you can imagine, and soon you may even be able to shop for car insurance or even buy car insurance using nothing but Twitter.
Many entities have already announced their participation in the early stages of this feature’s implementation, including but not limited to…
- Fancy (@Fancy)
- Gumroad (@Gumroad)
- MusicToday (@MusicToday)
- Stripe (@Stripe)
- Burberry (@Burberry)
- Megadeth (@Megadeth)
- The New Pornographers (@TheNewPornos)
- 9/11 Day (@911Day)
Clearly, this service isn’t targeting any one demographic, and will simply allow anyone with something to sell a means of doing so in a simple, direct way. It’s extremely exciting, and as the feature becomes more and more mainstream, we’ll begin to see “Twitter exclusive” discounts and sales, encouraging people to use the feature.
Twitter’s plan for their new “buy” button is to make shopping as simple as possible. You see a product, you tap buy, and it arrives at your door in a few days. Even things like shipping information and credit card numbers will be securely stored by Twitter, so after you enter it once, it will be automatically applied to purchases.
