The number of Pinners who engaged with shoppable product pins has increased nearly half (44%) year-over-year. During a time when browsing the aisles of a favorite store just isn’t possible, the platform has doubled down on its exploration of ways to improve product discovery and customize listings with a focus on facilitating purchase behavior and mimic that IRL storefront look and feel.
Last month, the platform unveiled features allowing users to shop in-stock products inspired by their own Pins. It also introduced a new Shop tab that functions as a personal shopping list. Fast forward to today, Pinterest is making an even bigger push for shoppable content with a new feature, “Shopping Spotlights,” that centers on purchases driven by curations from guest editors, including influencers and publishers.
Shopping Spotlights
In a statement to WWD, Amy Vener, Head of Retail Strategy and Marketing at Pinterest explained the impetus follows an 18-month theme in product development around bridging the gap between people finding inspiration and enabling them to take action. “Putting [Pinterest] users in the hands of these experts based on trends that are timely, and connecting them to the products they can buy, was a key reason why we launched the Shopping Spotlights feature.”
Shopping Spotlights is accessible via a feed of highlighted panels along the top of the “Search” tab. Content is hand-picked by guest experts and fashion leaders including author Elaine Welteroth, fashion blogger Blair Eadie, and interior designer Sarah Sherman Samuel. Per the official announcement, they will soon be joined by top fashion and lifestyle publishing partners Refinery29, Domino, Who What Wear, InStyle, Nylon, and Harper’s Bazaar. Beyond editors’ picks of influential fashion, publisher, and home tastemaker content, users are able to more seamlessly shop curated ideas based on the most relevant Pinterest trends of the moment.
How does it work? Simply tap through on any Spotlight to see themed collections including products linking directly to in-stock pages where you can make your purchase. In some cases you’ll encounter items from brands who are directly contributing to notable causes such as COVID-19 relief. The platform reports that over the past few weeks, searches for “help small businesses” and “support small businesses” have increased by more than 350 percent.
Facebook “Shops”
Similarly to Pinterest, Facebook is making its own moves to enhance its platform for the purpose of bringing people the joy of shopping as well as help businesses in their pivot to e-commerce.
The platform currently has its Marketplace while Instagram offers the capability to buy products featured in posts and ads. Its latest efforts, however, go even further. Called “Shops” the latest update makes it possible for businesses to turn their Facebook and Instagram pages into digital storefronts. Announced via a live stream, CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that expanded e-commerce is vital to rebuilding the nation’s economy. “We’re seeing a lot of small businesses that never had online businesses get online for the first time,” he said.
Each business can select the products they want to feature and then design the shop to their liking including picking a coverage image and accent colors that showcase their brand. Beyond the brand’s Facebook page and Instagram profile, products will appear in stories or in promoted content.
In-app and Live integrations
As the update develops, Facebook is working towards purchases made directly from a chat within WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct. It also plans to integrate loyalty programs with shops and give users the chance to shop while they engage in a live stream. In this scenario, brands can tag items from their catalogs so they appear at the bottom of their Live.
Finally, Instagram Shop is slated to launch this summer where users can browse items in Instagram Explore. There they can find inspiration from collections from their favorite brands on the @shop account. Later in the year, it plans to add a dedicated shopping tab to its navigation bar.
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