Stripe Partners with Twitter to Supercharge Buy Buttons
- Tuesday, September 15th, 2015
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Payments processing company Stripe has launched a new tool aimed at connecting retailers and brands with users on social media platforms like Twitter as well as a variety of other mobile apps.
The new product, Relay, has been adopted out of the gate by Twitter, with the expectation that the new solution will help the social network generate more revenue through its Buy Buttons, streamlining the process that enables users to buy products and enter payment and shipping info without having to leave Twitter.
Stripe already provides payment software to grocery delivery service Instacart, ride-sharing app Lyft and eCommerce platform Shopify, and if Relay proves successful, could see many brands adopting Relay as a universal sell button.
Many online retailers blame the high rates of unfinished and abandoned online sales on the often-tedious process of entering shipping and payment information, and anything that can reduce friction in this area has the potential to be seen as a valuable tool.
Meanwhile, Twitter has been struggling to both increase and monetise its audience, with monthly average user growth at its slowest rate since going public and many brands questioning the limited effectiveness of promoted posts without more effective calls-to-action.
“Today, mobile eCommerce websites arent working: ten-step shopping carts, mandatory account signup, slow page loads. When we get linked to a shopping cart on our phone, we usually just give up,” said Siddarth Chandrasekaran, engineer at Stripe. “That shouldnt be surprising – most mobile shopping sites are fundamentally the same as the desktop sites that preceded them, despite the medium calling for something completely different.”
“Almost two-thirds of our users say they bought something specifically because of what they saw on Twitter,” said Nathan Hubbard, head of commerce for Twitter. “As mobile and social continue to grow, consumers are going to discover and transact right in the apps where they spend their time every day.”