Pinterest isn’t just about watching anymore. Now it’s about buying.
The online pinboard is adding a new service to its platform, alerting its users when the items they have pinned experience a drop in price.
The announcement came this morning on Pinterest’s blog and it means we’re finally seeing some evidence of revenue generating moves from a platform which was pretty much just a display board. Previously in May, Pinterest started listing more detailed information for items from its partner brands, displaying brand logos and including price information. Now, any time an item you love or have pinned to your profile experiences a drop in price on its native website, Pinterest will send you an alert. It’s a chance for it to give its partner brands some e-commerce traffic to back up the emotional connections on the site.
There are a few startups and apps already doing this, (Nifti was one we mentioned because of its fun Vine marketing,) but arguably, no other platform has this many people on it to take advantage of the service. And it only works if you pin items from the brands listed on Pinterest’s blog that are partnering with the website. Still, that’s a lot of brands, and there will be plenty more looking to sign up. Users will eventually be able to use Pinterest as a singular hub for all the things they desire and can now buy directly. It’s the holy grail of marketing, brands will be able to identify and take advantage of emotional connections users create on Pinterest, driving traffic back to them.
