Pinterest has just started activating buy buttons on its pins in its mobile app for the iPhone and the iPad. For those not in the know, the social network company introduced Buyable Pins in early June. These Buyable Pins basically allows browsers to purchase items directly from Pinterest pins without having to be redirected to another website outside Pinterest’s interface.
Furthermore, Buyable Pins allows retailers to work with Shopify and Demandware while inside Pinterest. They can just place buy buttons on pins that promote their products, and then browsers can directly buy the products without leaving Pinterest’s pages.
The buy button appears on Rich Pins, which contains much more information compared to normal pins that show a link to an item. Once users put in their credit card and address, the item they bought will be delivered to them once they click the buy button. The buy button can be seen in all of the Pinterest mobile app’s features -- from the home feed to search results.
Apart from being a hub for users who want to collect or organize pinned images into boards, Pinterest has attracted a good number of business minded people to its pages. As revealed by Tim Kendall, Pinterest’s general manager of monetization, about two thirds of all content pinned on Pinterest boards come from entrepreneurs hoping to sell their wares via the social networking site. But before, when browsers see something they like, they still have to go through a number of steps before they can buy the item being displayed on Pinterest’s pages. Now, however, Pinterest’s Buyable Pins turns the whole process into one easy and quick experience. And not only that, Pinterest is collaborating with other third party entities to make the process even more efficient. For instance, it has already began working with merchants like Nordstrom and Neiman-Marcus in trying to bring as many products as possible in Pinterest boards. With regards to payments, Pinterest has also started working with Stripe to handle the payment processes.
Overall, introducing Buyable Pins is truly a win-win situation for Pinterest. First of all, it boosts user engagement by encouraging more people to browse Pinterest boards in the hopes of stumbling upon an item that they can buy directly. Secondly, Pinterest has just given retailers a very good reason to partner with the social networking site so that their products can be advertised to more potential buyers. As for Pinterest, it may have just found a way to keep its content continuously updated and viewed.
