Twitter enters the business of e-Commerce

Since last year it emerged that Twitter was considering entering the business of electronic commerce as one of the models to generate new revenue. These days are released from different sources, the first foray into the sale of products of various kinds.

The company announced that the company @ EarlyBird Exclusive offers, be made public, products and events which will appear in the Twitter account @ EarlyBird. People can follow this account to access bids.

The idea is borrowed from private sales sites and of limited duration, such as Gilt, Groupon and Woot (which was recently acquired by Amazon.com), a recent trend in online shopping. It also takes advantage of what companies like Dell, which is attributed million dollars in sales for publishing deals on Twitter.

Bids could be in products like the iPod or diapers, or at events such as concert tickets or trips. In a post on a company blog, Twitter hinted that rates could filter by category, such as clothing or accessories, in the future. Twitter has stressed that it would be selective with the deals we offer and “try to make these offers interesting and valuable to Internet users.”

Retailers determine the price of goods and availability. Twitter will make money from sales. It is experimenting with different models, such as a cut of each sale or a fixed price per transaction, “said Sean Garrett, a spokesman for Twitter. Traders use the card numbers of buyer’s credit for the respective transaction for purchased product.

This is a different approach to electronic commerce in which retailers can offer on-site transaction on the basis of what people are looking for. A retailer of running shoes, for example, may offer the shoes to people who asked about the best shoes for running on trails. This may still be possible with annotations, a new service that Twitter says it is launching soon so people can add data called what they want, as a way to make a purchase, in positions of Twitter.

The first agreement will appear soon, said Mr. Garrett. At first it will be throughout the U.S., but Twitter is considering further specific offers for other countries. If @ EarlyBird off, Twitter could become a competitor Groupon and many other e-Commerce sites, as well as Woot, Gilt and others.

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