Stripe launches Relay API for native mobile buy buttons

Initial launch partners include Twitter and the product discovery app ShopStyle, along with retailers Warby Parker and Saks Fifth Avenue, zdnet.com reports. Relay aims to carry out the purchase process directly within the point of discovery, namely mobile apps. Retailers can integrate their product catalog with Stripe and then sell them across whatever social platform and apps have also integrated the API.

Using Twitter, for example, Relay allows merchants to tweet a link and have a buy button show up next to it on Twitter. Once clicked, the consumer is not redirected to a mobile website and instead remains in the app for the entire purchase.

According to data from Stripe, mobile devices represent 60 percent of browsing traffic for shopping sites, yet they only make up just 15 percent of purchases.