Pinterest is the latest social media platform to enter the e-commerce market. Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann has announced that a blue buy it button will appear next to selected buyable pins. Later this month the buy button will roll out with millions of products from partners such as Nordstrom and Nieman Marcus.
This is big news for the retail industry and welcome news to Pinterest users, the platform is often used by pinners to create pin boards loaded with products they like, the new buy it button will help avid pinners turn their wish list into reality.
Pinterest have stated that they will not collect a fee from retailers for creating buyable pins and users will pay the same price for the products as they would on the retailer’s website. The new buy button streamlines the purchasing process for users which is great news for companies and consumers, up to now users have had to rely on retailers including links to the products or find the retailers website themselves.
Pinterest rolled out its advertising feature last year. Now, e-commerce companies that sell on the site will be able to easily credit the platform for influencing customer purchases, thus driving up the amount that Pinterest can charge for its ads, called promoted pins. Plus, buyable pins will presumably lead to more purchases on the site, giving brands more incentive to pay to promote their pins at all.
Pinterest found that 85% of people who use Pinterest were using it from their phones. So, the team made the buying experiences as mobile-friendly as possible. Buy buttons will roll out on iPhones and iPads by the end of the month, with the desktop experience and other phone operating systems, like Android or Windows, coming soon after.
The news comes just days after Google confirmed it will introduce a buy button to its search results and it is reported that Amazon is testing a Pinterest like site called Amazon Stream, which features a grid of products that users can browse through quickly and click to purchase.
This is a great example of a company listening to their users wants, making them a reality and improving user experience.
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