Twitter has served as a marketing and customer service channel by small businesses for years. Now merchants can use it to promote ecommerce, thanks to a third-party platform called Chirpify and Twitter's own efforts to open its advertising platform to small companies.

Chirpify, the Twitter Commerce Platform

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Chirpify, which first launched in 2011 under the name Sell Simp.ly turns Tweets into transactions, enabling consumers and businesses to "buy, sell, donate and transact on Twitter."

How Chirpify Works

To utilize the platform, merchants follow a three-step process:

Login with a Twitter account;
Connect to PayPal, which is the sole payment platform used by Chirpify to manage transactions;
Complete a profile...