Retail is coming to Pinterest. “People want to buy things on Pinterest,” said the company‘s Co-Founder and CEO Ben Silbermann on Tuesday at a media event at its San Francisco headquarters.
The personalised media platform plans to commercialise its service with the addition of a ‘buy‘ button for certain products. This new feature will enable Pinterest‘s 70m active users to instantly purchase products whilst browsing.
The visual bookmarking site has partnered with select American retailers including Macy‘s, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus which will post buyable pins for products they sell. The feature will offer more than 2m products that will be available for purchase.
Wanda Gierhart, Chief Marketing Officer of Neiman Marcus Group commented: “Neiman Marcus has always been a source of inspiration to our customers. We know that Pinterest is one of our customers‘ favourite ways to engage with our brand. Giving her the ability to purchase a product, as she discovers and is inspired by it, only enhances her shopping experience”.
The ‘buy‘ button is just one of a number of new ‘action‘ buttons planned that are planned for the social media site. Other features that have been discussed include a ‘wish list‘ tab for browsers to save content for later purchase.
The site‘s users will be able to scroll through different images of a product, select a colour and size and checkout using Apple Pay or credit card.
Pinterest is endeavouring to gain a greater share of the lucrative ecommerce market by encouraging brands to establish visual storefronts for its network in hope that more custom and traffic will emanate.
Talya Misiri
