Pinterest rolled out new merchant features, including product tagging on Pins and a Pinterest API for Shopping. The company says all of the new features are designed to make it easier for merchants to create engaging shopping experiences for users.
New Pinterest products include a Shopping API that integrates a brand’s product catalog and creative ads and generates eCommerce analytics. Pinterest offers merchants an array of features, including tagging products in posts, uploading short videos to catalogs (inspired by YouTube’s shopping-related reviews), and a Shop tab. Jeremy King, SVP of Engineering at Pinterest said,
“In 2021, the number of Pinners engaging with shopping surfaces on Pinterest grew over 215%, and 89% of weekly Pinners use Pinterest for inspiration in their path to purchase. The new shopping features such as the API for Shopping allows brands and retailers to reach high-intent Pinners during the earliest stage of their shopping journey with the most updated catalog data.”
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Merchant can access catalog and product metadata management that will enable more efficient improved data quality for merchant products. Pinterest claims the tool shows a 97% accuracy level for price and availability data.
Merchants can make their lifestyle Pins shoppable. They can add products from their catalog to their scene images. Pinners can shop for the exact items from the inspiring imagery they find. The initial tests showed that Pinners showed 70% higher shopping intent on product Pins tagged in scene/brand images than standalone product Pins.
Pinterest is enabling video assets in their product catalog to give Pinners a view of the product from multiple angles when making a purchase decision and driving conversions. They have witnessed promising results from video-like ad formats vs. static formats (increased CTR by 158%, lowered CPC by 42%, lowered CPA by 58%) on the platform.
Merchants can display shoppable products browsing Pinners. 30% of Shopify merchants on Pinterest get their first attributed checkout from their Shop tab. It allows product group management, customized group cover image, and descriptions as well as a seamless mobile interface.
As of now, Pinterest isn’t transitioning into a shopping platform. With the integration with Shopify, that owns the payment data, Pinterest sends organic traffic to retailers and merchants’ websites or enables add-to-cart and direct payments. Pinterest affiliate fees can be collected by creators (“pinners”) in conjunction with the sales they drive through their in-image product tags.
Other than the Shopify partnership – which has become a standard integration for social media players – Pinterest, and the market as a whole, show many encouraging signs for the company’s commerce goals.
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