Retailers turn to Pinterest for holiday season

Social networking site Pinterest will see its debut Christmas and brands and retailers are using the platform as a new way to boost e-commerce. Pinterest, as we all know, allows users to create and style moodboards of products and images

of things we love, in addition to compiling wishlists and browse the choices of other users.

Pinterest is

yet to turn a profit

Whilst the company is just three years old, Pinterest hasn't posted any profits, despite it experimenting with advertising. By giving users a visual experience along with the socialisation of product choices, Pinterest could well be the next medium for online shopping.

Google and Amazon let people search for products they know they want, but experts say the next iteration of e-commerce will replicate the “discovery” process of browsing a mall with friends and finding things you never knew you needed.

According to Curalate, a visual analytics group, 30 of the 50 retailers with the most online sales have added Pin It-buttons to their websites to let consumers post the companies’ products in their own Pinterest collections.

The interest in Pinterest comes at a time when visual social networks have a strong following, especially among young people and on smartphones. Facebook bought the photo-sharing app Instagram for one billion dollars last year, and recently had a three billion dollar offer rejected by the founders of Snapchat, a photo and video service.

In terms of numbers, Pinterest saw 44 million unique visitors in the US in October versus Facebook’s 178 million, according to ComScore.

Still, less than 1 percent of online shopping sessions originate from social media, according to research by RichRelevance, which makes e-commerce tools.

Image: Pinterest UClothing