Pinterest UK rolls out new shopping features ahead of festive season

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 1, 2020

Pinterest has launched new shopping tools for users and advertisers in the UK ahead of an expected surge in smartphone shopping during the festive season.

The image sharing social media service said the roll-out brings it a step closer to its goal of making every pin shoppable.

The new features include visual search results and more places to shop, two tools which have been embraced by shoppers in the US. This will allow UK pinners to shop within a pin, shop their search results, shop ideas from their boards and shop the inspiration they see in the real world through Lens camera visual search. 

Pinterest, which has over 400 million users worldwide, said demand for shopping functionality has increased over the past few months as people turned to e-commerce as a safe way to shop.

In fact, the percentage of users who visited places to shop on Pinterest grew more than 50% in the first half of 2020.

In the UK, users will also be able to get inspiration from Shopping spotlights, which are expert-selected shoppable content curated with publishers and creators. The concept is launching with Stylist Magazine and influencer Anna Newton. 

Additionally, ads are being integrated into the shopping experience to allow retailers to interact with their customers in a new way. 

Explaining the changes, the company said: “Instead of walking down London’s Oxford Street to see the windows ahead of the festive season, inspiration will likely be from the comfort of our own phones. In a year when more people than ever will be shopping online for the festive season, Pinterest can replicate that experience for consumers and retailers through curated collections and visual discovery. We’re building a place to shop online—not just a place to buy.”