With Snapchat’s initial public offering (IPO) coming up and Facebook rolling out a new feature nearly every day, Pinterest doesn’t get much attention. But big things have been happening at Pinterest.
Not too long ago, they hit 150 million monthly active users, shortly after Snapchat announced they reached the same milestone. Even though they each have the same size audience, the big difference is that Pinterest users are ready to buy.
Ninety-three percent of Pinners use Pinterest to plan for future purchases, found Millward Brown Digital research. Once they decide what to buy, Pinterest users spend $50 more per order than those on Facebook or Twitter, found Shopify data.
In short, Pinterest is one of, if not the, absolute best social platforms to drive sales. It’s likely your business, especially if you’re in e-commerce, should be spending a bit more time and attention on Pinterest than you do.
If that’s the case, here are the latest Pinterest features that you may have missed.
1. Shop the Look
What it is: With this new feature, a blue dot appears on different pins. If the person in the pin is wearing a gray shirt, for example, you can click that blue dot and shop the look. Several shirts that look like the one in the photo will appear.
There will even be items from a wide variety of brands. You scroll through until you find the one you like. Then, you click on it, and you can check out directly on Pinterest.
How it can help your brand: This new feature could really boost the direct number of sales coming from Pinterest. It gets your product in front of more people and makes Pinterest shopping intuitive.
Interested in making this happen for your brand? Right now, you must already work with Curalate or Olapic. Find out more details here.
2. Snap and Search
What it is: Ever see an insanely cool product while you were out and about, but despite your most valiant Googling attempts, you couldn’t find it online? Pinterest wants to fix that.
With Lens, which is currently in beta, you take a picture of that item. Then, Pinterest searches and provides you with similar, relevant styles or ideas. Right now, it works best for home décor, things to wear and food to eat.
How it can help your brand: This feature can help users find products that catch their eye on the fly. And since the pictures aren’t stored, it’s likely users will make impulse purchases.
3. Instant Ideas
What it is: In the same vein as Lens, Instant Ideas wants to make it easy for you to find similar content.
Say you really like a DIY idea on your home feed, but it’s just not quite right. You can now tap the circle in the bottom right of each Pin, and new, similar ideas will pop up. This feature aims to help users find products and discover ideas that will already resonate.
How it can help your brand: In essence, Instant Ideas makes it easier for your target demographic to find products and branded ideas that they’re probably like. Hopefully, this will help get more ideas (and conversions) on your pins without much additional effort on your part.
