Pinterest manages the buying process, right through to payment

The social network Pinterest organised the second edition of its Pinterest Presents, its global summit for advertisers. It was an opportunity to present a series of new features, including the beta version of Pinterest Checkout, which internalises payment on the platform. Pinterest has a clear objective: to become THE social network dedicated to shopping.

FACTS

• Pinterest has highlighted the new major issue driving its entire strategy: that of making its network a shopping destination in its own right.

• To this end, the social network has introduced several new features, including

  • Your Shop, based on algorithms capable of personalising the shopping experience of visitors to the service,

  • Checkout, to allow visitors to buy directly on Pinterest, by paying without being redirected to an external service,

  • Shopping API, a Pinterest API that allows e-retailers to more easily create and upload their catalogues via Pinterest,

  • Pinterest Trends Tool, a dedicated trending tool for merchants to help them track the audience of their pages and receive personalised trend recommendations.

• "Your Shop" and "Checkout" are currently being tested with selected US users of the social network (and Shopify for Checkout). They are expected to be open to all Americans later this year before being available in other countries later, although Pinterest is not specifying a particular list at this time.

• "The Pinterest Trends Tool is currently being tested and will soon be open in the UK and Canada before being offered in the rest of the world.

ISSUES

• Next step: As a tool for inspiration and idea sharing, the network now wants to take the shopping and payment experience to the next level by integrating it with the shopping and payment experience, rather than simply serving as a redirection tool to certain offers or products. In this way, Pinterest intends to move from being a shop window to a fully-fledged shop.

• The requirement for payment integration: Shopify would also open its payment solution to Facebook and Instagram in February 2021, with integrated payment management remaining a key to ensuring an optimised seamless experience.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Pinterest records over 400 million visitors per month worldwide. The network has surpassed the $2 billion revenue milestone in 2021 and wants to attract even more merchants and visitors with its new features.

• However, Pinterest will have to deal with increased competition, as its new objective is also that of the other major social networks, with Meta in particular multiplying its initiatives to transform its services into e-commerce tools. WhatsApp, for example, has been transforming itself into an online sales tool for several years now and Facebook has been offering its Marketplace since 2016.