1. Pinterest Price
Drop
Notifications
Steve Sherfy
(edited by
Laura Murphy)
01/08/2013
Background
Pinterest announced a new feature last week, an
email notification sent to users when a product
they have pinned drops in price. This “price drop
notification” is an enhancement to the product
price pins rolled out in May, which associate
prices with the products pinned on the site.
Product pins with prices have proved very
popular since their launch, receiving 36 percent
more likes than those without. The new price
drop notification feature will roll out with very
few customization options – users will either opt-
in or opt-out in their settings menu.
Implications
At only three years old, Pinterest is currently the
fourth-most popular social network and boasts
over 70 million users (97% of which are female
and more than 50% of which are in the USA).
More importantly, it has managed to become what Google, Facebook, Twitter and others have long
pursued: an effective merger of social and commerce. A study of online shoppers in the USA found
that Pinterest is the second largest driver of online shoppers to retail sites (11.3%), behind social
media giant Facebook (85.8%) and ahead of Twitter (2.9%). Additionally, Pinterest shoppers spend
up to 50% more per checkout than their Facebook and Twitter counterparts and 70% more than
visitors referred from non-social channels.
With no advertising product available to push reach, brands will have to rely on the organic
behavior of users pinning to share things of interest with others – more than 80 percent of pins are
repins – to drive engagement with their branded pins.
Summary
With the heavy shopping season soon approaching, retail brands would be remiss if they did not do
all they could to harness the potential – and reality – of the social commerce phenomenon that is
Pinterest. Brands that focus on creating product price pins that are aesthetically rich will find
themselves the most successful; the price drop notifications should spur interested pinners into
action and convert them into customers.
Sources:
Search Engine Journal, June 2012 - http://www.searchenginejournal.com/pinterestingly-enough-interesting-pinterest-
stats/45328/
Shopify – http://www.shopify.com/infographics/pinterest
RichRelevance – via AllofFacebook http://allfacebook.com/richrelevance-retail-infographic_b99335
ComScore, July 2103; AllTwitter - http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-stats-2012_b30651