Twitter launches new social e-commerce feature Twitter Shops

Twitter has introduced a new social e-commerce feature, Twitter Shops, which will allow merchants to curate a collection of up to 50 products to showcase on their Twitter profile.

The free to use feature aims to encourage users to seamlessly view products from the profiles of their favourite brands as they talk about and discover products on their timeline.

Unlike Instagram's native Shops, the transactions do not take place on Twitter, with users being directed to the merchant's website to complete the transaction upon clicking the item on the mobile storefront.

Twitter added that it plans to recruit and onboard more merchants and managed partners, with more online users shopping on social media via photos and videos links on Instagram, and through videos on TikTok.

Last summer, Twitter began a US-based e-commerce pilot that allowed users to browse products from a "Shop Module" at the top of an e-commerce merchant's profile.

The social media giant also began testing a new livestream shopping platform last November, with Walmart as its first beta tester. Twitter has since rolled out the Live Shopping feature to other managed partners, including food delivery brand Gopuff and Samsung.