Like all social platforms, Pinterest has seen a significant rise in traffic amid the COVID-19 lockdowns around the world. And the platform's not wasting the opportunity - with more people looking to Pinterest to find products, it recently launched its new Verified Merchant program, in order to maximize its the availability of Shoppable Pins and connect Pinners through to products.

And now, Pinterest is adding some more refinements to make it even easier to shop from Pins, which works to both assist impacted SMBs who are looking for an option to replace physical shopfronts, while also helping to boost Pinterest's broader eCommerce ambitions, and make it the place to be to find products online.

Here's what's been announced:

Shop from Boards

First off, Pinterest is adding a new 'Shop' option to your created Pinterest boards, which will provide buyable product recommendations based on the Pins you've added to your collection.

As explained by Pinterest:

"When a Pinner visits their home decor or fashion board, they’ll now see a Shop tab that shows products from or inspired by the Pins on their board. Just as if a shopping list has been created for their boards, Pinners will see in-stock products based on what they’ve been saving for a room or look."

It's a good way to connect people through to more personalized shopping recommendations, based on what they're interested in - and rather than simply providing similar, contextual matches for all of your boards in your 'For You' tab, the option will narrow down your interests into the categories that you've chosen for your own collections.

That could be a great way to encourage more purchase behavior in-app, extending on your established interests to showcase more relevant products.

Shop from Search

And Pinterest isn't overlooking the potential of search results for the same - it's also adding a new 'Shop' tab in search results, which will make it easier to shop in-stock products when conducting searches on the platform.

That, also, presents significant opportunity - Pinterest says that 97% of the top searches on its platform are unbranded, meaning that people come to Pinterest to shop for generic terms, not for specific brands. As such, providing a means to make a purchase direct from search results could assist smaller businesses, in particular, connecting people through to the exact items they want to buy, direct from their queries.  

Shop from Pins

Continuing the theme, Pinterest is also now adding a new 'Shop Similar' button in visual search results, which will make it easier for people to hone their searches onto immediately available products when seeking inspiration based on Pin content.

As you can see here, now, when you use Pinterest's object recognition within a Pin, you'll have the option to narrow down your matches to products available for purchase, streamlining your buying path. 

Style guides

Lastly, Pinterest is also adding new 'Style Guides' for related searches.

As explained by Pinterest:

"When searching for home-related terms like 'living room ideas', browsable style guides will now appear for home ideas in popular styles like 'mid-century', 'contemporary' and 'rustic'. These visual recommendations make it possible to explore trending styles and taste even when you don’t have the words to describe what you’re looking for. It’s like having an interior designer right in search."

The options will make it easier to explore thematic styles, which could help users narrow in on their preferences, and find relevant items more closely aligned with the general look they prefer.

These are some good options, which will no doubt help Pinterest users find more relevant, buyable items as they go about their on-platform searches. From a business perspective, the key to all of these is ensuring that you're posting buyable Pins. That's a big part of the impetus behind Pinterest's new verified merchant program - in order to qualify for a verified tick on Pinterest, brands need to have connected their product catalog to Pinterest, which then enables the platform to display accurate prices, and facilitate direct purchases in-app.

Increasingly, Pinterest is looking to become a product discovery engine, and a key part of that is purchases, and making it easy for Pinners to buy the products they find as they go. In this sense, Pinterest is essentially looking to become a digital shopping mall with a massive variety of 'stores' - which, right now, with shopping malls closed, couldn't be more relevant.

That could make this a key opportunity for Pinterest to showcase its potential in this respect. If you've not considered the potential of Pins before, and you have products to sell, maybe it's time to give it another look.