Here at Spark Growth we’re going bananas over Chirpify, an increasingly popular platform that lets you make “in-stream” payments via social media with just one post. With Chirpify, buyers and sellers engage in commercial transactions directly on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Here’s the breakdown on how this amazing platform can potentially rock the online payments world.
eCommerce
Good news for anyone who has ever had to fumble through an online shopping process. Chirpify’s “in-stream” model aims to remove “the friction in the sales process” so no more annoying captchas, accidently submitting the wrong credit card information or having to sync up the transaction with your PayPal login. Here’s how it works:
- A seller posts a new product on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
- A buyer (who holds a Chirpify account) responds with the word: “buy”
- Chirpify will collect a buyer’s invoices and transfer confirmed payments from a PayPal account, credit card and/or bank account to the seller.
There are some obvious advantages for the seller. Before Chirpify, eCommerce companies could only use social media to advertise their wares and then had to ask potential customers to travel to their online store to make the actual purchase. With Chirpify the promotion and sale occurs all in the same Facebook post, Instagram image or tweet. See how Tim McGraw, House of Holland and Adidas has already used Chirpify to host viral sales.
Peer to Peer
We’re super psyched about Chirpify because of its disruptive capabilities in not only the eCommerce world but also with peer topeer transactions. Say you owe your roommate rent money but you’re on the run and don’t have cash or a check available. Use Chirpify’s Direct Payments to tweet a payment instantly to your roomie’s PayPal or bank account. You can even instantly treat a buddy to a beer with the Chirpify powered Tweet-a-Beer app.
Donations
There’s a way where you can tweet/post to Chirpify to donate to a good cause. Also ask your Facebook friends, Twitter followers and Instagram viewers to contribute to the same charity with a #Direct Donation. This would have been an awesomely effective fundraising tool to quickly crowdsource funds to help such emergencies like last year’s Hurricane #Sandy or this month’s #Oklahoma tornado. Last year, Taco Bell used Chirpify to raise money to fight world hunger and both Obama and Romney set up the ability to accept donations via Chirpify during the 2012 presidential campaign.
Is it worth it?
It’s free to buy, donate or make a payment on Chirpify but smaller sellers such as those on Etsy and Ebay have to pay 5% plus $0.30 per transaction to sell via the tool. Bigger companies pay a larger percentage (2.9%) but get a suite of extras such as real-time eCommerce metrics, the ability to attach promo codes to their listings and branded materials.
Overall we’re excited about Chirpify but it’s not like we don’t have our doubts; how can you protect yourself from others going on your phone and posting fraudulent “buys”? How about trigger-happy shoppers who’d unwisely want to buy everything they see on Instagram? What are your thoughts: Will Chirpify transform the world of online payments for the better or do you think the platform has a long way to go?