It’s no secret that Twitter and e-commerce have been flirting with one another for quite some time. Soon, they’re expected to take their relationship to the next level.

Earlier this year, Re/code reported that Twitter was in the final stages of a deal with payments startup Stripe to enable people to buy and sell products directly on Twitter. On Friday, the publication reported that the deal is already done, and that we’ll see its fruits before the year is up. Jason Del Rey writes:

Later this year, Twitter is expected to unveil buttons within tweets that say “Buy” or some variation of the word; after clicking on the button, shoppers are expected to be able to enter in payment and possibly shipping information without leaving Twitter’s service. Sources say that businesses that want to sell products or services within tweets are being instructed to sign up with Stripe to process payments on their behalf. While Stripe is believed to be Twitter’s only payments partner working on the e-commerce business now, it’s not clear whether that will remain the case over the long haul.

In May, Amazon starting letting Twitter users add items to their cart with Twitter hashtags. In June, a “Buy Now” button was spotted in tweets in the wild. As recently as this month, a Payment & Shipping option was discovered in Twitter’s settings.

Like I said, it’s no secret that Twitter commerce is a thing that’s on the horizon. It’s just a matter of when it will become a thing that people can actually engage in beyond hashtag shopping cart additions.

Rival Facebook is also experimenting with similar aspirations. It recently started testing a Buy button, which some think could be a major step in improving the mobile commerce landscape. Twitter’s offering would only serve to add to that.

Image via Twitter