A type of platform that Pinterest falls under is a trading and marketing site which is defined as the selling of products. Most sites you think of first are Amazon, eBay, Groupon, and Craigslist/Kijiji. But now you can actually buy things that you see on Pinterest and it is changing the way we shop online. Users can now buy things that they pin by just pressing a button that does not require you to leave the site itself. Sellers large and small can place a ‘Buy It’ button on items that they post to the site. Payments made through the ‘Buy It’ service will be powered by Stripe, an e-commerce start-up that focuses on small and midsize online businesses. This is a major moneymaking opportunity for Pinterest though they don’t plan on making money off e-commerce the traditional way which is taking a cut of retailers’ transactions. The company has said that it would make money selling promoted-pins advertisements to retailers, who can then insert buyable pins into those ads. I know… ads. They really are the worst. But right now every social media is turning to selling advertising space to make money on their free technologies. Now Pinterest is in competition with Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat in generating digital advertising dollars. The company believes that video ads will be successful as TV watching is decreasing. Millennials are spending their time on their smartphones and on apps which is where digital advertising makes the most money. Snapchat has even put promoted ads on people’s stories. They generate zero profit as it is but the company valuation is reportedly in the billions. This says a lot to investors in terms of user preference and satisfaction.
The ‘Buy It’ service makes an effort to create a less stressful shopping environment by being able to purchase items on a mobile device. On many other retail sites customers are forced to enter their address and credit card information before purchasing an item, a task that is particularly difficult on a mobile phone. With Buyable Pins, consumers do not need to re-enter payment information every time they want to buy an item. I’d like to take this moment to not only apologize to our followers for sharing this information but also my credit card. This is definitely a game-changer.
Works Cited
Isaac, M. (2015, June 2nd). Pinterest Brings E-Commerce to Social Scrapbooking With 'Buy It' Button. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/pinterest-brings-e-commerce-to-social-bookmarking-with-a-buy-button/?_r=0
Maheshwari, S. (2016, August 17). Pinterest Follows Rivals Into Selling Video Ads. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/business/media/pinterest-follows-rivals-into-selling-video-ads.html
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