Pinterest has taken a few more steps to emerge as a major e-commerce destination with the company now allowing purchases to be made via the web version of the site as well. So far, it is only the iOS and Android versions of the Pinterest app that carried the buy buttons.
It can be considered as a significant development for a company that first emerged six years ago and only allowed its users to ‘pin’ any image or other content that is of ‘interest’ to them. However, it was just last year that the company started offering pins with a buy button so that users could purchase any item of their liking right off the site itself.
It again makes a smart move for a company that has been dealing with just the stuff that users perhaps care for the most in their lives. Providing them with the buy option naturally makes the process of owning those all the easier. The site is like a treasure trove of all the stuff that user’s dreams are made of, and any retailer would offer anything to have the kind of insight that Pinterest has to the user’s mind.
Also, the scale of Pinterest’s operations too can be an eye-opener for even established players like Amazon. For instance, the company that CEO Ben Silbermann prefers to describe as a “catalog of ideas” already has a user base of more than 100 million to start off with. That is not all as product count now available for buying also stands at 10 million, a steep hike over the just 2 million available a year ago.
Of course, the company isn’t going to stop at that and has elaborate plans in store. For instance, it is already working on a shopping bag where users can save an item and will be available across devices. Pinterest is also working on a personalized recommendation feature, something that is being aided in no small measure by the over four million items that users pin on the site each day. That is not all as sellers will also be allowed to create dedicated pages at Pinterest showcasing their products.
Pinterest is also introducing a new visual search tool that will enable users to search for any item inside of a pin. There is a camera search tool also in the works that would enable users to click an image of any object, and the app would search for the same within pins.
Ironically, Pinterest isn’t yet making any money from all the transactions it is facilitating via its site. Instead, it is advertising that continues to be its primary source of revenue though that no doubt will change once the company’s e-commerce makeover reaches a more mature level.
