Twitter has introduced new features in preparation for an e-commerce push, according to sources reported by Reuters.

The news comes after Twitter announced its goal of doubling its revenue to $7.5 billion by the end of 2023 earlier this year.

The San Francisco-based company said these new features included changes to the algorithm which determines which advertisements users will see.

The algorithm will now show advertisements to a larger pool of people at the beginning of the campaign so it can better determine user interest.

Twitter said these changes led to a 36 per cent increase in ad campaigns that achieved at least five downloads during the time the trial ran on Twitter.

Twitter said these moves are in preparation for eventually allowing brands to sell via their platform.

Ads promoting mobile games and other apps will now allow users to begin the download without leaving the Twitter app, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Slide-show advertisements that include multiple products will now be able to send users to multiple target websites when they click the advertisement, brands could only choose one location before.

The social network said it is also working on features that will help brands target users that are likely to make in-app purchases.

Many social networks are exploring how their platforms can be used for e-commerce; earlier this year Pinterest announced it is set to roll out new e-commerce features that will allow brands to promote their products and ideas.

Collections on Pinterest can now include slideshows, allowing merchants to create video-like shoppable ad experiences via catalog integrations.

Many social media platforms are seeing increasing revenues from their e-commerce operations; shopping on Tik Tok has surged by 553 per cent over the past 12 months, according to new research from Bazaarvoice.

Facebook experienced growth of 160 per cent in terms of shopping on the platform, while Pinterest saw a boost of 356 per cent during the same period.

However, Twitter has also recently divested some of its advertising-related operations by entering into an agreement to sell MoPub to marketing software company AppLovin Corporation for $1.05 billion in cash earlier this month.

"Performance advertisements are a very large opportunity ... that's relatively untapped for us," said Kamara Benjamin, group product manager at Twitter told Reuters in an interview. "Ultimately, this is going to lead to people installing apps, visiting websites and finding products that meet their needs."

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