After daily hard work as a publicist, Becca Bijoch chooses shopping to refresh her mind again. She often headed out to the stores as she did not care much for online shopping. This habit changed last year when she joined Pinterest, a photo-sharing social media website that allows users to share gorgeous images by pinning them to online bulletin boards based on their interests and to follow others. Bijoch says she has found all sorts of things that she bought after seeing them on Pinterest, from great kitchen utensils to good-looking clothes.
“I’m probably spending more now” Bijoch says. However, she has no regrets. “I tell everyone that Pinterest has changed my life.”
Pinterest, which was the fastest growing social media website, hit 10 million unique visitors a month. Now, it has 25 million members, of whom many – like Bijoch – are young, female, well-educated and have disposable income.
Retailers have a big passion toward these users, but sometimes it is difficult to grab their attention since Pinterest is an ad-free website. While many retailers have learned how to deal with consumers on Facebook and Twitter, they are still struggling to find the best strategy for Pinterest and the ways to make money out of reaching shoppers through it.
In that effort, many retailers have installed Pinterest buttons on their main websites, created their own Pinterest pages, and allocated marketing dollars to acquire followers. “It’s a huge window-shopping platform,” says Kyla Brennan, chief executive of HelloInsights, a company that provides analyses of Pinterest use. “It helps people find what they really like. Does it encourage people to be a little impulsive? Of course.”
E-commerce experts state that Pinterest makes are more profitable than some other social media sites. Pinterest shoppers, on average, spend nearly $170 per session, with 700 million shopping sessions. In comparison, Facebook shoppers spend $95 per session, while Twitter shoppers spend $70.
Three major brands with the largest number of followers on Pinterest include L.L. Bean (with more than 5 million followers), Nordstrom Inc (more than 4 million followers) and Lululemon Athletica Inc (close to 2 million). Other major names like Gap Inc and Urban Outfitters Inc have fewer followers on the site, but are still growing.
The three-year-old Pinterest recently closed a $200 million round of financing, which raises its value to $2.5 billion.
Most companies’ activity on Pinterest is handled by their social media team. However, the efforts are slightly different from promotions on Facebook and Twitter because Pinterest boards are interest-based, not timeline-based. Nordstrom’s Facebook page, for example, features a couple of products daily that are on sale or seasonally interesting, but its Pinterest page is an evergreen collage of fashion lifestyle images. Since there is no direct advertising and Pinterest is still growing, the marketing cost to businesses of acquiring new users is lower than other sites.
“The current cost of acquiring a Pinterest follower is a penny to 50 cents, depending on type of business. That compares to 50 cents to $2.50 on Facebook,” said Daniel Maloney, the CEO of PinLeague, a consulting agency for social media.
One of the top ways to reach followers as many as possible is to do anything except try to sell products. L.L. Bean, for instance, is devoted to pictures of woodland creatures – its most popular pin is a picture of a cat dressed up to look like a bat.
“While we do measure traffic coming to the website from Pinterest, we are not currently promoting the platform as a selling channel,” says Laurie Brooks, senior public relations representative for the company based in Freeport, Maine. Internal metrics show Pinterest users spend more than others, and that traffic is on the increase even if, overall, it is less than what comes from Facebook, she adds.
L.L. Bean has not offered discounts through Pinterest, while it has sponsored contests. Same thing happened with Nordstrom, which did a bridal-focused sweepstakes in January.
“Our followers share and save compelling imagery and merchandise – period. Our boards aren’t focused on bargains or coupons,” says Bryan Galipeau, the group manager of social media of Nordstrom. “We think it’s important to take a broader view of Pinterest because that’s also how our customers see it.”
Fashion retailer Gilt.com’s “Pin to Win” contest offered a $2,500 shopping spree to women who shared certain images from their wedding dress collection. Gilt also rewarded those who received 50 re-pins of a children’s dress the chance to buy the item for 77 percent off.
Similarly, fashion-seller Karmaloop.com offered a trip to Paris for the best outfit pinned to one of its boards.
Other goodies from retailers include AMC Theatres’ giveaway pinboard where users can win movies posters and other memorabilia. Wal-Mart Stores Inc ran a contest about inspiring people to be environmentally conscious.
Even if you could win something by shopping through Pinterest, customers need to urge some impulse control, since most of what is “pinned” on Pinterest is inspirational, people can end up spending more dollars rather than when they click from other social media.