Pinterest introduces e-commerce capabilities

Thursday, June 4, 2015 - 13:26 by Sarah Collinson

Social bulletin board site, Pinterest, has lived up to many commentator predictions and announced the introduction of a service which will let its users carry out safe shopping, according to the Daily Mail.

Pinterest chief exec, Ben Silbermann, made the announcement this week, pointing out that the catalogue-style arrangement of products on the site made the transition into the e-commerce market easy to broach.

So-called ‘buyable pins’ will be introduced in the next few months, giving users the option of making purchases from within Pinterest itself, rather than having to look up the items they see on other shopping sites.

The first people to be able to buy products online from Pinterest itself will be those users of the site based in the US, with iPhone and iPad fans targeted first and foremost.

Transactions will either be handled via Apple Pay or with the use of standard payment cards, which should keep things simple and secure.

Pinterest is an intriguing addition to the social media landscape and, arguably, has a better chance of embracing e-commerce than rivals, like Facebook and Twitter.

This is because sharing products is a key part of Pinterest’s appeal, with users distributing images and information on a range of items. So being able to buy an item from within the site itself is a logical step and one which could help boost the firm’s already impressive $11 billion (£7.2 billion) valuation.

In the past 12 months, a total of 50 billion new pins were added, representing a 75 per cent year on year growth. And while Pinterest may not yet be in quite the same league as the biggest social networks, its integration of e-commerce could help catalyse its ascent and lead to an influx of new users arriving.