Relay functions as a universal sell button for retailers, allowing companies to list products in a single place and sell them directly on Twitter as well as other e-commerce platforms. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google have all launched similar efforts to try to cash in on the lucrative e-commerce market, a marketplace that still struggles with clunky mobile tools.
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As Livemint reports, Stripe designs software allowing companies such as Lyft and Instacart to accept payment through websites and apps.
On Monday, Stripe launched a new product named Relay to facilitate vendors to sell their items within third-party applications that make use of Stripe, including Twitter (TWTR). “Relay makes direct purchases right on the app”.
“Mobile devices have dramatically altered consumer behaviors and have had a correspondingly big impact on businesses’ advertising strategies”.
Co-founder of Stripe, Patrick Collison said just around 15 percent of e-commerce sales occur on the phones, despite the fact that smartphones have now become the preferred devices for personal computing.
The product was born from a desire to fix the mobile buying experience, which requires customers to jump through several mobile websites and input a lot of information in order to finally purchase something.
Twitter users will be able to start selling within their tweets using the Relay API, according to the blog post. While Twitter has already been testing a “Buy” button, Relay is intended to open the door to any merchant that wants to reach customers through the social network.
Payment company Stripe is hoping to take mobile and social commerce to the next level – and make it a little bit easier.
Stripe says these experiences are tough to build, hence Relay.
Stripe’s new offering should prove useful for Twitter as it brings more functionality to its service while holding buyers within its app rather than losing them to merchants’ webpages.
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Stripe was valued at billion in July, after a funding round that included an investment from Visa Inc.
