Social Items

Twitter is reported to be working on an e-commerce initiative that will allow users to purchase items direct from a tweet according to sources at Re/code. The initiative which is supposedly powered by Stripe, an online payment service facilitator, integrates a "buy" button into tweets making the social network a ready-made e-commerce hub for users to market their products and services.

The company is set to unveil "buy button" below tweets; and on clicking on the button, users are able to enter in payment and possibly shipping information without leaving Twitter’s platform.

Twitter as a marketplace will give the currently struggling company, a solid revenue stream, leveraging on its massive pool of informed users. Twitter and Stripe representatives, however have declined to comment about the initiative, but strong indications support the report.

Albeit, other web service companies have been leveraging on Twitter for e-commerce, like Amazon which allow users to add items to their Amazon shopping cart by replying to a tweet of a product link with #AmazonCart hashtag, it won't be surprising if Twitter join the bandwagon.

Twitter Marketplace: Get ready to Buy direct from a Tweet!

The African e-commerce landscape is really an interesting one, even as McKinsey, a global consulting company, had recently published a report on the role of Internet in Africa. The company predicted that the e-commerce market in Africa will grow to about $75 billion by 2025.

Analysts pinpointed the process of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the customer and the product as main area of challenge for e-commerce business in Africa.

Initially, e-commerce ventures in East Africa used to focus on the affluent and the diaspora customers, with payment by credit cards, mostly in the gifting industry - but, the trend is fast giving way with innovative approach such as payment via mobile money. And lately, payment in e-commerce in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are mostly in mobile money, such as M-Pesa, rather than credit cards (which have only 10% penetration in Kenya, for instance).

Trends like "Buy online / Pay offline", for people who need to see the product first before spending their money has given rise to free classified ad spaces, with offers like Post free ads in Tanzania making a success story.

E-commerce as utility providers (electricity, telcos) and government services (taxes, fines, benefits) are equally seizing the mobile money opportunity. And subsequently, making mobile money as a preferred way to pay for goods and services more popular.

African E-commerce: Emerging Trends to Watch in 2014

Smartphones are pretty popular nowadays, so too the risks associated with carrying mobile devices. You may have paid only $150 for your latest smartphone, but if you had to replace that device before you became eligible for a subsidy from your carrier, it could cost you more than $500. That's why it pays to ensure your device is protected against damages.

Exofab team spent hours on the drawing board trying to find the most effective and non-intrusive way to protect a mobile device.

The company prides itself as leading developer & manufacturer of specially designed “guards” for device protection with the use of innovative materials. After trial and error they found that a thin guard made of Smart materials will offer the same level of protection a regular case would.

Perhaps, unsatisfied with how regular mobile phone cases made our most prized possessions look like, "we searched for other alternative ways of protecting them", the company stated.

Exofab is proud to offer innovative products that provide extreme Scratch - Impact - Drop protection without sacrificing safety or appearance. Check out the company's new generation of guards that make fat and bulky mobile phone cases obsolete for iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S5 now.

What you need to Protect your Mobile Devices against damage?

The iconic social network, Pinterest has added a new feature that allow users to send direct messages or pins to one another. The direct messaging makes it easier for users to have a good old fashioned conversation about those Pins that interests them, and also works for group communication.

When organizing a camping trip with friends - you can try sending Pins to the whole gang so as to figure out stuffs like where to go and what to bring along.

Pinterest averages over two million pins every day, now you’ll be able to reply with a direct message or send a Pin back. And the notifications addition helps pull up the conversation when you need a reminder.

The company hopes to help users swap creative ideas and share best discoveries with each other according to the official blog.You can learn more about sending and replying to Pins here.

Pinterest getting Pinteresting with direct Messaging

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