Twitter and Amazon deal gives shoppers chance to shop without ever missing a tweet

Twitter has moved to strengthen its commercial offering by inking a deal that allows Twitter users to shop directly on Amazon by clicking on the hashtag #AmazonCart.

The deal was announced earlier this week and will be available only to US customers for the time being.

A video released by Amazon explaining the #AmazonCart initiative says users will be able to stay in their Twitter feed while clicking on items they would like to place in their Amazon shopping cart.

“With hashtag #AmazonCart, whenever you see a tweet with an Amazon product link, just hit reply and add #AmazonCart and it will be waiting in your cart the next time you visit Amazon. Add it now, buy it later – it’s that simple,” Amazon says in the video.

The deal comes only a week after photos were leaked of Amazon’s proposed smartphone release, which analysts say could be released within the next couple of months.

The new deal will also provide Twitter with some ammunition in its efforts to disprove critics who say the social media platform has failed to show any real business model that could monetise its base of 255 million users.

Twitter released its quarterly results at the end of last month and despite a rise in revenue and user numbers, the social media platform’s share price slumped.

A $US132.4 million ($A142.7m) loss in its January to March 2014 quarter earnings was offset by a 119% rise in revenue over the quarter to $US250 million, up from $US114 million in the first quarter of 2013.

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo said Twitter’s mobile publishing initiatives would hold it in good stead, especially as it has “one of the largest in-app mobile ad exchanges in the world and the only one at scale to offer native in-app advertising”.