Pinterst adds buy button to Android app

Following the example of Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest has become the next social medium to add retail to its portfolio. The company has announced on their website that the US app for Android now contains a buy button.

When a Pin features a blue buy button on the app, consumers can click this to buy the product. According to The Street the development makes sense, as Pinterest has always been used for the creation of digital wishlists.

“Buy buttons are something we have been considering for a long time,” says Pinterest´s head of commerce Michael Yamartino on The Street. According to Yamartino, this new function has often been requested by users. "People have always been finding products they want to buy on Pinterest. We did a lot of research into other ways we could help users make those purchases and came up with buyable pins as the way to get started," said Yamartino.

As well as launching the buy button, the company has presented The Pinterest Shop. The items that are available in this online store are selected by the Pinterest team. Examples of brands that are sold here, include Bloomingdale´s and Nordstrom.

In June 2015 the buy button first made its appearance in the iOS app for Pinterest. At the time, approximately 30 million Pins were equipped with a buy button, but by now this number has doubled. Customers who make a purchase via Pinterest can either pay through Apple pay or by credit card. The new service is currently only available in the United States, and yet unknown when it will be available in other countries.