Pin It, Transact It
Pinterest’s data-backed advice on in-store merchandising
While many may see Pinterest simply as an online pinboard tool to collect visual inspirations, the site has actually been building its back-end into an image library filled with meta-tags, ensuring a smooth transition into a shoppable platform. It is now using its visual insights to offer brands data-backed advice in the offline world.
By looking at the content of pinned images as well as how users interact with each other through liking, commenting, and re-pinning, Pinterest is now informing retailers what products are most trendy, which products couplings generate the most user interest, and when they should best display certain products. Pinterest says that its efforts are—for now—focused on the organic non-paid realm in order to make shopping via the site “a behavior” for its users.
Pinterest has also conducted a consumer-facing analysis and released an annual Top 100 chart. This analysis has also led to its own first merchandising via a partnership with the subscription box firm Fab Fit Fun. The two companies partnered to create a gift box of 10 fashion and beauty products informed by the items that Pinterest had earmarked as ‘emerging trends’. Available only to subscribers, the boxes are retailed at $49.99. “It’s one of the first times Pinterest has become an offline thing,” said the site’s Head of Sales Jon Kaplan. “We’re taking the trends and making them available.”
Sources: The Drum (July 10, 2018) | Pinterest 100 (December 12, 2017) | Image: Laura Pittaccio