‘Twitter Shop’ in testing phase to grow e-commerce

As part of its effort to gain a piece of the $45 billion US market for so-called social commerce, Twitter will experiment with allowing companies to display up to 50 products for sale on their profiles.

Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O), the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, is a leader in social commerce. Their platforms enable merchants to set up virtual shops and sell products.

The beta test for Twitter Shops will be available for select businesses in the United States and will be visible to people using the Twitter iPhone app, the company said.

US wireless carrier Verizon (VZ.N), one of the test partners, featured iPhone cases and wireless chargers in its Twitter shop on Wednesday.

After viewing the product on social networking website, users are redirected to the merchant’s website for checkout.

The experiment expands on a previous feature the platform began testing last year allowing brands to showcase up to five products at the top of their Twitter profiles.

The San Francisco-based company is also experimenting with live-streamed shopping,