Pinterest Pivots Toward Shopping With Pinterest Partners

Pinterest has rebranded its third-party partner program Marketing Partners into Pinterest Partners to facilitate a greater number of shopping experiences on its platform, according to a report by Retail Dive.

The company has around 291 million active users, many of whom use the platform for shopping ideas when they go out to retail stores. The company has partnered with specific companies to provide advertising, measurement, content marketing, shopping and other related topics.

For example, Pinterest teamed up with WooCommerce to help businesses build eCommerce sites and unique customer experiences. It’s partnered with feed management companies like Feedonomicas, Productsup and GoDataFeed to help businesses manage how their products appear in feeds.

The company has also linked up with shopping experience platforms like Shoppable, MikMak and Basketful to connect the dots between a pinned image and a retailer that can get the product to a customer. It’s also teaming up with PixelYourSite and Tealium to keep an eye on the measurement of conversions and sales.

“Pinterest’s rebranded partnership program comes as the social media company seeks to support more merchants on its platform, which lets people collect images on digital pinboards. The company has aimed to distinguish itself from other social media sites with an emphasis on aspirational products and services, such as wedding planning, home remodeling, travel or fashion,” Retail Dive said. “By making those images more transactional, Pinterest can support social commerce, grow its ad business and draw more brands and users to its platform. More than half (57%) of weekly Pinterest users, or Pinners, use its app while they’re shopping in stores, according to a study by market researcher GfK.”

About 47 percent of social media users see Pinterest as a platform for finding out about and shopping for new things, which is three times higher than Facebook and Instagram, according to a February survey by Cowen and Co.

“However, when it comes to driving eCommerce, Facebook and Instagram are more effective than Pinterest, a separate study found,” Retail Dive said. “Facebook drove 80% of all U.S. social referral to retail sites in Q1, followed by Instagram (11%) and Pinterest (8.2%), according to Adobe Insights data cited by eMarketer.”