Overview
About damn time, Pinterest. The global social media giant and lover all things wedding-related has joined the world of e-commerce; revealing a 'Buy It' button to allow users to shop their favourite pinned products.
Revealed on Tuesday at a big ol' shindig at the San Francisco Pinterest HQ, the new 'buyable pins' have been a long time coming for the globally-celebrated website worth a cheeky $10 billion and singlehandedly dedicated to sharing pretty, pretty thingies users immediately want to hand over their dosh for.
According to TIME, 50 billion pins have been added since the company's launch and 93 percent of active Pinners were keen to use the site to plan purchases — that's a genuinely gargantuan customer base eager to throw their money at someone, anyone. Plus, 80 percent of users access the site through their phones (prime online shopping grounds), so the whole thing's a no-brainer (albeit a late-to-the-party one) for Pinterest.
So how does it work? After clicking on select pinned products, users will be able to scope out the price, size and colour options of their chosen Pretty Thing and select the quantity to order. You'll be able to use credit card or Apple Pay to nab your chosen item and you'll pay no additional fees. Crazy.
So far, even Pinterest merchants won't have to pay commission to sell their wares — all of which makes it a little ambiguous how Pinterest will make any money out of this. We're guessing, with the recent introduction of promoted pins for big advertisers, merchant fees will be introduced down the track after everyone signs up.
Pinterest will roll out the buyable pins in the US on iPhone and iPads in late June. Already signed-up merchants include Neiman Marcus, Macy's, Nordstrom, Kate Spade and Cole Hahn. We're still waiting to hear when Australia will get its mitts on the buttons.
Instagram just revealed a 'buy it' button for advertisers and Facebook's apparently also working on one too. Social media e-commerce, come at us.
Via TIME.
Images: Pinterest, Dollar Photo Club.