Twitter to Combine Shopping and Livestreams, Teams Up With Walmart to Test New Feature

Twitter is teaming up with Walmart to launch an online shopping initiative via livestreams. The latest feature will allow users to make purchases from businesses directly on the microblogging platform, while watching a live broadcast at the same time. The company will hold its first test of live shopping stream on November 28. The show will be hosted by celebrated R&B artist Jason Derulo. The Live Shopping will include electronics, home goods, apparel, seasonal decor, surprise special guests, and much more. The social networking company has also started testing Twitter Shopping Manager.

Twitter on November 22 announced the new live shopping experience via a blog post. Twitter and Walmart will commence Cyber Week with the first ever shoppable livestream on Twitter on November 28. The Cyber Deals Sunday event will begin at 7pm ET (5:30am IST). During the event, users can watch the live broadcast, shop products from Walmart (on iOS and desktop). Derulo will host a 30-minute variety show.

While watching a Live Shopping stream on Twitter, people can check out the Shoppable Banner and Shop Tab on the live event's page. Also, they can watch the livestream on the merchant's website within an in-app browser, without pausing the show while shopping.

"Livestreaming on Twitter gives businesses the power to engage with their most influential fans and adding the ability to shop into this experience is a natural extension to attracting and engaging with receptive audiences", Twitter said about the feature.

Twitter has also started testing a Twitter Shopping Manager to assist with merchant onboarding and product catalogue management. This will give merchants a one-stop-shop for managing how they show up on Twitter, said the company. Twitter said it is looking forward to introducing more products to make shopping on Twitter a new experience.

Twitter's entry into livestream shopping follows a feature called Shop Module. The functionality introduced in July this year allows people to shop products through an in-app browser. Shop Module is a dedicated space at the top of a profile where businesses can showcase their products. Twitter users can visit such profiles with the Shop Module enabled and scroll through the carousel of products. They can tap on interested products to check out others like it through an in-app browser, without leaving Twitter.