Pin, Plan, Buy: How Pinterest is Grabbing a Piece of Social Commerce

93 percent of ‘Pinners’ use social media site Pinterest to plan purchases and 87 percent of these users have made the buy, according to a research from Millward Brown. Ecommerce brands have taken notice of these staggering statistics, with the site announcing that in the past three months, the amount of Buyable Pins has doubled, eclipsing 60 million in total.

A good number, considering that Buyable Pins were rolled out just over five months ago.

Introduction to Buyable Pins

Pinterest’s foray into social commerce was a logical step, with many users already using the site to curate their own fashion and food tastes. The buy button, announced in February and launched in June, brings search and purchase onto the platform, minimizing path to purchase and using platforms like Stripe, Braintree, and Apple Pay to avoid handling user credit card details.

Containing “fuller information” than the standard Pin, Buyable Pins also contain a price written in blue, and a blue Buy Button that Pinterest’s Head of Business Development Gene Alston described as “incredibly hard to miss,” according to an article on PYMNTS.com.

The October Expansion

Already reaching 60 million buyable pins from ecommerce merchants big and small, the company announced an initiative recently to expand merchant reach, rolling out partnerships to Bigcommerce, IBM Commerce, and Magento on top of already-partnered Demandware, and Shopify, enabling buyable pins for a much wider variety of merchants.

To the Future of Social Payments

Allowing for purchases, peer-to-peer payments, and political funding on a social media platform has already been the topic of the year; with Twitter’s Buy button, Facebook’s Messenger Payments, and Twitter’s political campaign funding initiatives coming center stage in recent months.

Looking forward, Pinterest continues to expand its 70 million monthly visitor base, as well as its advertiser and merchant base, meaning the site could become a tour de force in social commerce—already recognizing twice the conversion rate to standard pins, according to a recent press release.

With the holidays on the way, merchants could see a major bump in transactions as users begin to search and buy for family, friends, and coworkers.

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