Pinterest is a social media site that encourages image sharing with the intent of passing on ideas and inspiration. Since its creation in 2010, the site has successfully achieved this purpose and garnered over 450 million users.
Its creators have also come up with several invaluable facets, a good example being Pinterest shopping. According to them, a marketplace was one of the most requested features soon after they launched the site. Users would often get inspired or fascinated by a given product and ask where they could purchase it from.
Pinterest shopping may still be a fairly new entrant in the E-commerce space, but traders are already making leaps and bounds from it.
In this article, we shall go over, what Pinterest shopping is, how to sell your products, and tips on how to make impressive sales through it.
Without further ado, let us dive right in!
What is Pinterest Shopping?
It is the process of viewing and purchasing products you may be interested in via Pinterest.
Usually, most people visit the platform for inspiration and new ideas. While at it, a given product may strike your fancy leading you to purchase it.
For seamless shopping, the platform provides buyable product pins with links that go directly to the check-out page on the retailer’s site. Users can, therefore, shop for items that they need while browsing through their favorite topics.
They can also get product recommendations from searches, boards, and lens camera searches. Furthermore, users may decide to check out expert recommendations and trends from influential tastemakers and, consequently, buy the recommended products.
Products can either be bought on the spot or saved in a shopping list on the platform. This way, users can always come back whenever they are ready to purchase the products they have been eyeing. In case there are any discounts or bonuses added to these products, instant notifications are sent.
Related: Social Media Marketing: the Most Useful Tips for Pinterest
How to Sell Your Products on the Platform
On the part of sellers, here’s a step-by-step method on how to sell your products.
Step 1: Create an Online Store
If you do not yet have one, you need to create an online store. This is where users will be redirected when they want to make a purchase. Additionally, an online store will enable you to keep track of inventory, product information, and sales among other logistics that come with running a business.
Pinterest works great with online stores on platforms such as Square Space, Square, Big Commerce, and Shopify.
Step 2: Create a Pinterest Business Account
This is an easy process that will have your account up and running in less than a minute. There are three ways to go about it. They include:
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Link Your Personal Pinterest Account to Your Business Page
In this case, you will simply visit your account, click the menu button and select ‘Add a Free Business Account’. You should then follow the provided instructions and prompts to get started.
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Create an Exclusive Business Account
This method is suitable if you want the business account to operate as a standalone. In this case, visit the Pinterest business sign-up page, click create an account then follow the provided instructions to create your page.
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Convert Your Personal Page into a Business Page
This means that you will lose your privacy as all your posts will be made public. A good thing about this method is that it will help you capitalize on your existing following.
Step 3: Link your Store to the Pinterest Business Account
Platforms like Shopify and Big commerce allow you to link your account automatically. However, for sites like Squarespace and Square you need to visit their settings page to link your Pinterest account.
Step 4: Create and Organize your Boards
This is whereby you lay out what you have to offer. The platform offers several features to help you, explore, save and properly organize your images.
Step 5: Create Product Pins
This describes the process of linking the images on your account to your online store. This way customers can be able to find out their price, description, reviews, and make a purchase.
Step 6: Track Your Performance
The platform provides a free Analytics system that you can take advantage of to track your performance. This can help you know the amount of traffic on your page, track your sales, and establish your top-performing products among others.
Related: Take your Brick-and-Mortar Business Online and Skyrocket Sales
Tips to Making Great Sales
Once you complete the above steps it will automatically lead to organic traffic. Nevertheless, there are several measures you can adopt to drive your sales even higher.
They include:
- Create neat and well-organized boards.
- Group your products based on their respective categories.
- Make use of target keywords when describing your images.
- Create, clear and easy-to-read product descriptions.
- Upload great quality images and embrace a breadth of tones and color.
- Ensure your online store can load fast.
- Promote your pins using pinterest ad where you can create ad campaigns for your brand and products.
- Contribute to Pinterest communities by pinning other people’s pins and leaving positive comments. This will help you make connections and also build a following.
- Add your linked-in profile to your other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. It will, especially, prove useful if you have a following and are active on these platforms.
Benefits of Selling Products on Pinterest
Highlighted below are among the top benefits of using this marketplace.
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High Potential Target Market
Pinterest is a site that people use to find inspiration and also try out new things. That means that users are highly likely to purchase your products if they like what they see. With over 454 million monthly active users worldwide, landing customers is a walk in the park.
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Seamless Business Operations
The platform is easy to use and provides invaluable features enabling you to gain sales and manage your business.
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High Conversion Rate
The fact that the pins can directly lead to the check-out page on your site means that more viewers are likely to convert to sales. Moreover, it encourages more traffic and inbound links to your online store.
Related: 8 Actionable Tips and Tricks to Run Your Facebook Store
Differences Between Facebook Market Place and Pinterest
You most probably have come across the Facebook marketplace, a space that allows you to discover, buy and sell items.
To enable you to differentiate between the Facebook marketplace and Pinterest, here is a comparison table
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Facebook Market Place |
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Users mostly utilize the platform to socialize thus the chances of converting are low. |
Users mostly utilize the platform to search for new ideas and products thus the chances of converting are high. |
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There are more businesses on the platform (80+million businesses) creating stiff competition between sellers. |
There are fewer businesses on the platform (1.5+ million businesses) thus less competition between sellers. |
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Uses both images and texts to advertise products |
Uses only images to advertise products |
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To purchase products, usually, buyers have to first contact sellers via the platform |
Provides direct product links to the retailer’s online store |
Conclusion
Pinterest Shopping holds so much potential for sellers who can adequately take advantage of its features to promote and sell their products. This is because, its users are specifically on the platform to explore and try out new things – leading to high conversion rates. All you need is great content, a website or online store, and a product or service that is likely to convert.
