The E-Commerce Powerhouse (Which You Might Have Forgotten About)

Not surprisingly, Pinterest is seeing a surge in engagement during this time of social distancing, showcasing the platform’s shopping-at-home advantages. TURNER has been keeping track of the platform’s (often quiet) rise as an e-commerce powerhouse that doubles as a search engine-esque inspiration sparker and discovery tool. Whether your brand is travel, hospitality, wellness or food & beverage, Pinterest is well worth paying attention to — now more than ever.

A Few Pertinent Pinterest Stats

• The number of users engaging with shopping on Pinterest has increased by 44 percent year-over-year;
• Searches for “Home office setup” have jumped 70 percent and searches for “care package ideas” have doubled over the last two weeks;
•  Product Pins have increased by 2.5 times since last year and traffic to retailers has risen by 2.3 times in the same period. 

Pinterest’s New E-Commerce Features & Functions

•  A “Shop” tab that appears on Search and on boards. This will help users find in-stock products from retailers;
• Visual search functionality that is integrated directly in shoppable Pins. This makes it easier for users to shop for similar products;
• Curated home décor style guides that can be found via search that can spark engagement and conversions.

Why Brands Should Be Paying Attention

• Weekly Pinners are highly engaged. They are three times as likely to click through to a retailer site after visiting Pinterest than after visiting other social media platforms.
• Weekly Pinners are ready to take action. Eighty-three percent of them have made a purchase based on Pins from brands.
• Weekly Pinners spend more. On average, they spend 1.6 times more than people who don’t use Pinterest. They’re also more likely to buy multiple items.

In other words, Pinterest stands tall as an extremely influential web space for consumers. But despite these impressive stats, many brands have yet to optimize when it comes to their Pinterest presence. Look for that to change as more and more shoppers are transforming into dedicated e-shoppers. The platform’s e-commerce power could easily expand in realms beyond retail — travel, wellness, food and beyond.  

Pinterest Best Practices & Tips

How can you make your page stand out? Start using these five tips and you’ll be on the road to Pinterest e-commerce success.

• Keywords: What are your targeted audiences searching for? Increase search visibility and user engagement by enriching your board titles with keywords. Take it a step further and repeat them in the board’s description. Pins’ descriptions should also have similar keywords within the board.
• Visuals: Always make sure your whole image is seen; the suggested size is 735 by 1102 pixels. To catch pinners’ eye, try out different visuals, such as a mosaic layout or images overlaid with words.
• How-Tos: Pinners are looking for ways to do something, not just be shown the final product. This goes for both boards and individual pins. An individual pin can be a do-it-yourself or how-to and link to a website or blog post with step-by-step instructions.
• Broad Focus: Users are more likely to search in a more general fashion on Pinterest, so brands should title boards in a general fashion, and not over-describe pins. Give users the whole picture, but always lead them back to your specific website.
• Links: While Pinterest’s new shopping functions make it easier to buy without leaving the app, board descriptions and pins should still be linkable back to your website, blog post, calendar event, etc., anything that can help direct pinners directly to your site.