Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) has acquired payments infrastructure service CardSpring for an undisclosed price.

Based in San Francisco, CardSpring is backed by venture capitalists Accel Partners, Data Collective, Greylock Partners, Morado Venture Partners, SV Angel, Felicis Ventures and the Webb Investment Network. The company provides commerce services to retailers and digital publishers to assist shoppers. Among the offerings are electronic coupons, loyalty cards and virtual currencies that work with credit cards and other types of payments.

"As we work on the future of commerce on Twitter, we’re confident the CardSpring team and the technology they’ve built are a great fit with our philosophy regarding the best ways to bring in-the-moment commerce experiences to our users," says Nathan Hubbard, Twitter's head of commerce, in a blog post July 17 announcing the acquisition.

The deal coincides with Twitter's recent efforts to keep its users on the site when purchasing items from retailers.

In 2013, Twitter hired Hubbard as part of its push to generate e-commerce capabilities. Hubbard previously worked at Live Nation Entertainment's Ticketmaster as CEO.

Twitter's commerce plans leaked in February when images of a mock-up demonstrated plans to allow purchasing through the online marketplace Fancy.com. At the time, Twitter was reportedly working with the payment processor Stripe. This month, Fancy's app added "Buy Now" buttons that directed to a checkout page within Twitter's application in what might have been an accidental reveal of the technology.

Social media rival Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) is also testing a "buy" button to let users shop from its website.

The CardSpring announcement comes roughly a month after Twitter picked up video-editing startup SnappyTV, a San Francisco company founded by former Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) general manager of video Mike Folgner.

For more on strategic buyers in the technology sector, see "Tech Deals Expected to Heat Up."