Pinterest Inc on Tuesday said that it is diving into e-commerce with “pins” that let people buy items they like on the popular online bulletin board.
“Pinterest is already designed to work like a catalog, so we wanted to find a way to weave buyable pins into the pages people already know,” cofounder and chief executive Ben Silbermann said during an event at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco.
“Buyable pins are a simple and secure way to buy the products you love right from inside Pinterest,” he said.
Pinterest buy buttons are to debut on iPhones and iPads in the US later this month.
No timeline was given for when buy buttons might be available in Pinterest applications for Android-powered devices or when they might go international.
“Believe me, we want to make sure that any pinner in the world can buy anything they want on Pinterest,” head of core products Jack Chou said. “We wanted to start with a beautiful experience on iPhone and iPad; this is just a big first step.”
Apple Pay or credit cards are to be the options for paying on Pinterest, which built the service with partners including Shopify Inc.
Pinterest announced in March that it had raised US$367 million in new capital, pushing its valuation to US$11 billion.
The new funds are to help fuel global expansion plans for the fast-growing social network, which calls itself a “visual bookmarking tool.”
Pinterest has become one of the Internet’s hottest Web sites, particularly among women, by giving people virtual bulletin boards that they can decorate with pictures showcasing interests in anything from food to sports, to fashion or travel.
“Buyable pins will allow us to not only find the right audience and convert them faster, but they will be able to buy in-the-moment as they are discovering our products,” said Sumeera Rasul, founder of Madesmith.com, which showcases items made locally and sustainably by hand. “I am super excited for buyable pins to be launched soon.”
Pinterest sells advertising in the form of “promoted pins,” but did not plan to charge fees to buyers or sellers using the coming buy buttons.
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