Pinterest Starts Rolling Out Buyable Pins On Android Phones

Pinterest is starting to roll out Buyable Pins on Android phones today, the company said.

Buyable Pins let some retailers who are partners with Pinterest and retailers use Shopify and Demandware. The company unveiled Buyable Pins earlier in June earlier this year, with the iPhone getting access to them later that month. The tool lets retailers add a buy button to pins that let users purchase products directly from Pinterest.

After putting in their credit card and address, users can purchase products that have the buy button placed — which is placed on Rich Pins that have more information. They then get that product delivered to them by simply clicking on the buy button. Purchases can be made from all points of the app’s features, like search and home feed.

Beyond that, the company is today rolling out what it is called the Pinterest Shop, which is a collection of trending products that users can buy on Pinterest. Examples would be products that fall under topics like sweaters and pillows. Some of Pinterest’s top trends, according to the company, were leather leggings and blanket scarves, which fall into the company’s trend report as part of its shop.

All this taken together helps merchants get another touch point for their user base, giving them an opportunity to sell their goods without requiring users to jump off Pinterest. That can require leaving the site to a chain of additional screens to set up a final purchase, which might discourage a user from making a final purchase.

These tools are equally important for Pinterest, because they help drive additional engagement for its products. Around two-thirds of the content on Pinterest is pinned by people from business websites, Pinterest’s general manager of monetization Tim Kendall told TechCrunch at the time of the launch of Buyable Pins. If users are sticking around on the site longer, and more often, Pinterest can more easily monetize them — and use that revenue to further drive its business.

Commerce is increasingly a strong point for Pinterest as it continues to roll out new products that have the potential to drive additional revenue for the company. According to an earlier TechCrunch report, Pinterest is forecast to make around $169 million in revenue this year.