I love Pinterest. I am a fan of most social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat…but Pinterest has become quickly a favorite of mine. I can make virtual boards of future dinners/desserts, outfit ideas, fitness routines, favorite celebrities…it’s amazing! So imagine my shock/horror/fascination when I read the other day that Pinterest would now offer a pay button to go along with some of their pins. Say what?!?
Now, you may wonder why this is such a big deal. After all this seems almost inevitable with social media being an outlet for brands to market their products and foster loyalty through their own Facebook or Instagram pages. Well, Pinterest is now taking this a step further by giving users the ability to buy those shoes as soon as they “pin” them rather than having to search for the website or store that carries them. “Shoppable pins” will revolutionize the standard method of finding a store and looking for a shirt or outfit to buy…now users know what they want and all they have to do is press the button to buy (Heine, 2015). Retailers who participate by providing links to purchase their products on Pinterest have a gold mine of an opportunity here. Users can easily make impulse purchases to brands they already love or maybe find a new brand to love if the item is convincing enough. The idea of marketing a product is to get people to buy it…so why not make this process easier?
The beautiful part of Pinterest is it’s all about the user. Their wants, hopes, ideas, life goals…who do we want to be? It’s not all that surprising that many who enjoy “pinning” end up purchasing items they have “pinned” to one of their boards. I myself have made several meals/desserts from pins I have found and even bought items as well. Even if one is not a huge fan of social media, those who want to build companies and make their brands more accessible should heed this: “Millenials, or Generation Y, will have a combined purchasing power of 2.45 trillion dollars worldwide by 2015. Purchases will be made online and in stores..social interaction on forums, reviews, posts and feedback is assumed to be influencing in purchasing behavior” (Scanlon, 2015). Social media is a large part of how Millenials connect to each other through sharing their interests and ideas. The idea is for brands to take this information and find ways for users to feel personally connected through posts and give users notices of sales/coupons/discounts. This generation has money to spend and is not afraid to use different non-traditional channels to purchase their merchandise. (Scanlon, 2015).
If the ability to purchase as you pin does not shock you, then perhaps the fact that Pinterest can now help filter out pins which meet people’s interests based off past “pinnings.” VisualGraph was purchased by Pinterest in 2014 to help understand what others were pinning and help build suggestions for those users based off what was pinned earlier (Constine, 2014). Companies who plan to sell items off Pinterest could greatly benefit from this handy service as this could bring customers back after making a purchase with frequent reminders of the brand’s products or deals. While the concept of allowing purchases from a social media site may seem scary or risky, those who are looking to expand on their brands may find this a convenient and worthy idea. Pinterest is full of users looking to make their boards a reality so why not make that happen with one easy step?
References
Constine, J. (2014, January 6). Pinterest acquires image recognition and visual search startup VisualGraph. TechCrunch. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/06/pinterest-visualgraph/
Heine, C. (2015, June ). Instagram offers big data, but Pinterest has purchase intent.: Marketers weigh in on e-commerce upgrade. AdWeek. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/instagram-offers-big-data-pinterest-has-purchase-intent-165168
Scanlon, S. (2015). How to tap into the purchasing power of Millenials with social media. YouBrand. Retrieved from http://www.youbrandinc.com/social-media/how-to-tap-into-the-purchasing-power-of-millennials-with-social-media/
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