Pinterest: An Online Retail Platform?

As a retailer, you may think of Pinterest as a social media platform your business can use to share project tips and drive foot traffic to your store.

Pinterest is a social networking site that acts as a “virtual pinboard” where users can collect photos that links to the things they want to save and look at later. While users continue to pin ideas and inspiration from your store, now they can also purchase items directly from the Pinterest website.

For the past year, Pinterest mobile app users have been able to buy items from the social media website using the “buyable pin” option. Recently, buyable pins have been integrated to be available on the web, too, and a shopping cart feature has been added, according to AdWeek.

Similar to Amazon, Pinterest users can now easily search, add products to a shopping cart and purchase from several merchants at once, making Pinterest an online retail platform in addition to a social networking site.

The content sharing service has also introduced new features making it easier for people to search for items seen within a Pinterest post. According to AdWeek, that means that when a person is looking for something featured within a pin, such as a pair of shoes or home décor item, they will be able to search for similar items on Pinterest by clicking on a button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Additionally, Pinterest is working on new technology that will allow users to take and use real world photos to shop Pinterest.

Pinterest says that it’s currently only working with a few major brands and five commerce platforms. Click here to learn more.