The social media platform awakened to the potential of online shopping via social media in 2015, when it introduced Buyable Pins. In 2017, its “Shop the Look” feature furnished its advertisers with click-to-purchase capabilities for items featured in pins.
In 2020, Pinterest proclaimed a “goal of making every pin shoppable.” Four new shopping enhancements appeared in 2022, including an API to empower advertisers with catalog management and product metadata features to support merchants on the platform.
While economic realities, including tariffs and tighter ad budgets, have spurred Pinterest to evolve, it’s not facing an existential crisis. The company posted a strong Q3 performance, including 17% year-over-year revenue gains, a 12% jump in monthly active users to 600 million, and an adjusted EBITDA of $306 million.
Even so, the social media platform got a late start to the ecommerce game; Twitter and Facebook introduced “Buy” buttons in 2014.
And while Pinterest is incorporating AI to improve recommendation relevancy and ad engagement, that effort has been expensive; the platform’s 2023 R&D costs of $1.07 billion rose to $1.24 billion in 2024.
To further increase its visibility as a shopping destination, Pinterest recently inked a deal with Roku for Bring My Pinterest to Life, a streaming series featuring six 22-minute episodes in which influencers Caroline Vazzana, Tay BeepBoop Nakamoto, and Drew Michael Scott will lead guest consumers on an “inspiration to realization” shopping journey.
