Twitter could finally be preparing to jump into the commerce arena through a deal with Stripe that would let it accept card payments for in-tweet payments, according to press reports.
Citing sources, tech news site Recode says an agreement is near completion with Stripe, the start-up which provides merchants with an API that they can embed into their Web sites to easily accept credit card payments.
Details on how Twitter plans to break into the e-commerce market are sketchy but TechCrunch claims that a marketplace similar to the one developed by Square (led by Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey) is in the pipeline. TechCrunch says that Twitter has also been talking to PayPal.
The marketplace could see retailers open up an e-store either within a standalone platform or the main Twitter site, removing the need for customers to go to merchants' Web sites and therefore reducing shopping cart abandonment rates.
The speculation comes months after Twitter hired former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard as its new head of commerce.
Although the social network has so far largely ignored commerce, it has made some forays, partnering American Express last year on a service which let people sync cards with their Twitter accounts and then make select purchases by tweeting hashtags.
The platform has also been used by firms like Chirpify for hashtag triggered payments. However, other in-stream payment start-ups - Flattr and Ribbon - have been shut down by Twitter.