The social media has announced a new improvement to their product-buying platform, allowing Pinterest users to relate products they see in real life with articles on the Pinterest shop, by just using their smartphone cameras.

Pinterest has improved since its beginnings, at first, it was a simple scrapbook page that allowed users to find different ideas, pictures, recipes between others, by using keywords and categorizing them into their “Pins”.

Pinterest visual search smart technology
Pinterest Visual Search smart technology allows users to search items within Pins. Photo: Digital Trends

As of now, Pinterest describes itself as a “catalog of ideas” in where users can find style inspirations and ideas. But since last year, users can buy products seen on the website thanks to a partnership with over 20,000 merchants.

Currently, the website offers over 10 million products that users can buy in an easy way, using Pinterest’s mobile application, which is available only for Android users. Meanwhile, the iOS app is developed.

Now users can turn the camera on their smartphones to match products in real-life to similar ones in the Pinterest Shop. Also, users that see an appealing product on an image can match it to one in the shop.

The San Francisco-based website, offers in its shop from house collections, to wardrobe, shoes, art, and decorations, and it’s an innovative tool that doesn’t have wide competition in the current social media market.

A new way of online shopping

The company announced on its news blog on Tuesday the new camera search tool, which will work by launching the phone’s camera to detect an object for sale, similar to the one in the picture taken by the user.

Pinterest hopes to broaden the horizons of both users and product owners, into a new online market that makes the shopping platform easier and more user-friendly. It also lets small business owners have an extensive database of customers.

The head of commerce of Pinterest, Michael Yamartino addressed the initiative by assuring they “hear people say all the time, ‘I’ve found this on Pinterest, but I don’t know where to buy it’. So image detection and camera visual search will help.” This new tool will be available in the upcoming months on the website.

Just last year, the company announced its ‘buyable pins’  a tool that allowed users in the desktop and mobile application to buy products featured in images on the website. Allowing users an easier buying tool, while browsing through the site.

When on the site, users will spot a blue price next to a product or an image to indicate the item is on sale. Buyable pins are found all over the website and are related to the user’s’ searches and related products.

After tapping on the product, users will have a view of the different colors available, read the description and learn the amount left in stock. By just tapping on a top button users will be able to purchase with their credit cards.

Some of the big initial partners for the buyable pins options are Macy’s, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Kate Spade. Their products are shown to the 70 million active users on the website that has currently over 50 billion pins.

The company has agreements with five major commerce platforms and brands, such as Shopify, Demandware, IBM, BigCommerce and Magento to allow the service to work and provide business a secure platform.

The Co-founder of the company and Chief Executive Ben Silbermann announced buyable pins last year, as the company’s first approach to the e-commerce. By saying it was a “simple and secure way to buy the products users love within Pinterest.”

The initiative was made after a survey showed that 93% of Pinterest users, attended the site for future purchases and 87% assured they had bought an item because they saw it on the website.

Wishlists and shopping bags

After the first approaches to e-commerce, Pinterest launched their wish lists that allowed users to convert their boards into future shopping lists, matching products available or similar offered by commercial partners.

Pinterest also offers the shopping bag tool, in were buyable pins can be saved when the user is still choosing across the web, or just saving them for a decision later on.  These features have made the website very popular among the e-commerce market.

The website also added another searching tool to their platform, in which users on the site could tap on several items on an image and track them down to their original retailer. This way by simply watching an image, users could make a purchase.

After the feedback received by users and retailers, Pinterest created their business site in which companies and product makers can make a partnership with the site and announce their products on the site.

The website provides business the opportunity to learn the analytics of their products on the site, see how users could reach to them, meanwhile they reach to their expected audiences and achieve their marketing goals.

Pinterest has a platform of product buying that none of the other big social media pages has since currently Facebook and Snapchat are focused on the video market. The company has been valued at $11 million, and its market is still growing.

Source: Pinterest Blog