Popular social networking sites Facebook and Twitter are working on projects to provide e-commerce facilities to their users. Since their inception, both sites have dominated the digital world by introducing innovative products from time to time. While Facebook has about 1.3 billion users, Twitter claims that every month it attracts between 550 million and 800 million unique visitors. Such a strong user base is likely to benefit e-commerce projects.

To see consumer response to their products, Facebook and Twitter placed ‘buy’ buttons on their sites in July and September respectively. By clicking the button, users can buy products from merchants on the social networking site itself, without having to migrate to another site. Like any other online shopping process, this system requires users to fill in their mailing address and payment information while placing orders.

Facebook and Twitter are currently experimenting with this feature in the U.S. If successful, the feature could be used worldwide to woo more consumers. But the project could be affected if users hesitate to shop amid social networking activities and to share payment information on open platforms.