What is Pinterest Shopping and Why Your Business Needs It 

Pinterest is a unique social media platform that gained popularity as a place to discover and save creative ideas. As it grew, businesses realized its marketing potential and began showcasing their products to reach the Pinterest community. 

With 445 million monthly active users, it has become a powerful social commerce platform that connects businesses with customers. 

This is why it's even more important for your brand to make the most of this platform and learn how to sell on Pinterest successfully. A successful Pintrest shopping strategy paired with a high-converting eCommerce website with Web.com is a winning formula!

What is Pinterest Shopping?

Pinterest Shopping is an integrated shopping experience within Pinterest. It enables you to showcase your products using special pins. Users can explore a vast array of products they love, such as fashion, home decor, and more, and purchase them from the app. 

You can upload your product catalogs to Pinterest, creating shoppable pins with product details, images, and prices. When users find an item of interest, they simply click on the pin to access more information and proceed to your eCommerce website to complete the purchase. 

Pinterest Shopping is perfect for both businesses and consumers. Businesses can leverage this feature to reach new customers, drive traffic to their websites, increase sales, and enhance brand awareness. On the other hand, consumers benefit from a seamless shopping experience, discovering unique products tailored to their interests and preferences. 

Pinterest Shopping Features

• Product Pins. Product Pins are a specific type of Pins on Pinterest designed to highlight product information. They look like regular Pins but come with additional features like a special title, description, price, and stock availability. The little price tag in the corner of these Pins indicates that the items featured can be purchased. 
• Catalogs. Catalogs are a tool that helps you take all the products from your website and turn them into product Pins on Pinterest. 
• Try On Product Pins. This feature allows users to virtually try on products they discover using Pinterest Lens. With this feature, users can see how certain products, like makeup or accessories, would look on them before making a purchase. However, Try On is currently only accessible on mobile devices and is limited to specific regions. 
• Collections Pins. Collections Pins are a special type of product Pins on Pinterest that are grouped together in a collection. When someone clicks on a Pin in the collection, they can shop for similar products. In simple terms, it's a way to organize related products, so users can easily find and shop for items they like. 
• Product Recommendations. Pinterest uses machine learning to suggest personalized product recommendations based on a user's interests, boards, and past interactions. 
• Visual Search. Users can upload images to find visually similar products on Pinterest. This feature helps them discover products they like based on images they have seen elsewhere. 

How Businesses Can Benefit from Pinterest Shopping

Reach new customers

Pinterest Shopping opens a world of possibilities for you to expand your customer base. By showcasing your products through product Pins, you can reach millions of users on the platform who are actively seeking inspiration and ideas for their next purchase. 

Build brand awareness

The more you reach a wider audience, the more people see and recognize your brand. When users regularly interact with your product Pins, they become more loyal to your brand and are likely to explore other products you offer. It's a way to get more people interested in your brand and keep them coming back for more. 

Drive traffic to your website

With Pinterest Shopping, you can direct users to your eCommerce website with just a click. This direct link from the product Pin to your site helps drive traffic that can lead to more engagement and potential conversions. Shopping tools and other platforms

Increase sales

The seamless shopping experience provided by Pinterest Shopping streamlines the purchase process, which makes it easy for users to instantly buy products they love. This convenience often translates into increased sales and a boost in revenue for businesses. 

How to Set Up Pinterest Shopping

Step 1: Create a Pinterest business account

To get started, businesses need to create a dedicated Pinterest business account. This type of account provides access to valuable shopping tools and features that regular personal accounts do not have. 

After setting up the account, the next step is to become a Verified Merchant. This process is straightforward and open to businesses of all sizes. To qualify, you need a legitimate and professional-looking eCommerce website with clear policies for privacy, shipping, and returns, as well as contact information. You also need a data source for the product Pins. 

Becoming a Verified Merchant comes with benefits such as the ability to create product Pins, display a blue "verified" badge to build trust, and have products featured in various Pinterest shopping tools. 

Step 2: Connect your store to Pinterest 

To enable Pinterest Shopping, you must connect your online store to your Pinterest business account. This process typically involves integrating your product catalog with Pinterest. 

Many eCommerce platforms offer simple integration, making it a one-click or automatic process. In case the platform doesn't offer direct integration, you can manually upload your products to turn them into Pins. This step is essential as it ensures that your products are visible to users on Pinterest. 

Step 3: Organize your Shop tab 

Once the products are uploaded, they will appear under the new "Shop" tab on your profile. However, to provide a better user experience, organize your products into categories. Pinterest refers to these categories as "product group." 

By creating these collections, you can organize your products based on specific themes, such as new arrivals, most popular items, or seasonal/sale items. You can feature up to three product groups at the top of your Shop tab. This will help enhance the discoverability of your products and makes it easier for users to browse through related items. 

Step 4: Create shopping ads 

Once your catalogs are ready, create shopping campaigns within Ads Manager. Choose the "Shopping" campaign objective and set your budget, targeting options, and schedule. 

In these campaigns, select the specific product groups you want to advertise, like categories or custom groupings. Pinterest will automatically create shopping Pins for the products in these groups, showing the product image, title, price, and a shopping tag. 

Step 5: Add product tags to image Pins 

Apart from creating product Pins, you can also tag your products in regular image Pins. When you tag products in these Pins, it becomes easier for users to shop for them when they see inspiring lifestyle images or posts. 

Each Pin can have up to eight products tagged, giving businesses plenty of chances to display various items in a single visual. Using this feature can significantly increase the chances of users showing interest in and buying your products. 

Step 6: Install the Pinterest tag to your website 

Lastly, it's important to add the Pinterest tracking tag to your website, especially if you're considering running ads. This tag helps you measure how well your Pinterest marketing is working and track when users take actions like making a purchase or signing up. Even if you're not running ads, the tag still provides valuable data about how users interact with your website, giving you insights into what they like and how they behave. 

You can install the Pinterest tag in three different ways: using an integration partner, asking your developer or colleague to do it for you, or performing the manual set-up yourself. 

Power Tips for Selling on Pinterest  

Use relevant keywords in your pin descriptions. When creating Pins for your products, use descriptive and relevant keywords in your Pin descriptions. This helps users find your products more easily when they search for specific terms on Pinterest. 

Consider using keywords related to your product category and popular search terms to improve the visibility of your Pins in search results. 

Create pins that are visually appealing. Pinterest is a highly visual platform, so focus on creating eye-catching and visually appealing Pins. Use high-quality images and videos that showcase your products in the best light. Aesthetically pleasing Pins are more likely to catch users' attention and encourage them to engage with your content. 

Use pinnable images and videos. To increase the chances of your Pins being shared and discovered by a wider audience, make sure your images and videos are Pinnable. This means creating content that is compelling and shareable to encourage users to save and share your Pins on their own boards. The more your users share your Pins, the more exposure your products get on Pinterest. 

Promote your pins on other social media platforms. Extend the reach of your Pinterest Shopping efforts by promoting your Pins on other social media platforms. Share links to your Pins on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to drive traffic to your Pinterest profile. Cross-promotion on other platforms can help you attract new followers and potential customers.

Grow Your Business with Pinterest Shopping

As you can already tell, Pinterest is not your typical social network. It serves as a high-intent search engine and a source of inspiration. And the best part is you can use it to market your products and services without any cost! 

With the right approach, Pinterest can become an essential tool in your digital marketing toolkit. It helps you increase brand awareness, attract targeted visitors, and ultimately boost sales.