Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

As chains continue to explore ways to cash in on Retail via Twitter, apps focused on such efforts are running into an unlikely obstacle: Twitter itself. For example, one such retail application—called Tweetalicious, which rolled out on Monday (June 20)—forces users to agree to a very frightening list of very-visible permissions.

Before downloading the Twitter Commerce app, a user must agree that the vendor can read the consumer’s tweets (including private direct messages), “follow new people,” “update your profile” and—my personal favorite—”post tweets for you.” Yeah, what consumer would have any problem with any of that? A third-party wants to send tweets out under my name? No problem.

“I don’t think it’s the best choice of words,” said Harrison Lee, the Tweetalicious co-founder/chief marketing officer, who also dubbed the warnings “intimidating.” But, he added, it’s not his firm’s fault; Twitter dictated that wording.

“It’s unfortunate that we don’t have any control. The whole page comes from Twitter,” Lee said. “I don’t know why Twitter would insist on those words.”

One likely reason is a very literal interpretation of what an app does. Yes, technically, any Twitter app is going to be able to do all those things, in the same way that Microsoft’s Outlook E-mail client can send E-mails under your name and access all your most private messages. The difference is that Outlook is presumably not sending messages that its human user didn’t write. (That said, if any E-mail client would opt to start sending its own messages without its owner’s knowledge, it would almost certainly be Outlook. To be fair, Gmail would want to, but only Outlook would really do it.)

Messages that are almost certainly going to needlessly scare off lots of consumers are only one hurdle for retailers looking to try and mine during the Twitter tweets-of-gold-rush era. The Tweetalicious approach is a good example of what works with Retail via Twitter and what some of the daunting 140-character challenges are.

The way that app works is consumers are first shown—after they sign away their life—a series of retail categories such as electronics, fashion & apparel, health & beauty, etc. The next drilldown includes lists of consumer goods manufacturers and retailers, and users choose their favorites—presumably brands from which they want to hear offers.

How extensive are those lists? In fashion & apparel, for example, the app lists 900 brands, Lee said. For the average consumer, though, how many names will really be considered? Like Google, a response might display 14,000 responses. Only the first 10 to 20 responses are going to see meaningful boosts, though, and the boost for any listing beyond the first 100 will be trivial.

The Tweetalicious response is that it—at some unspecified future point—will offer to sell chains and consumer goods brands sponsorships, which would give “higher priority” in the displays.

One area that Tweetalicious is not planning to offer is sponsor exclusivity, and this could prove an important retail concern. For instance, it’s certainly worth a lot to Target to be able to send lots of compelling offers to people who say they want to hear offers from Target.