A top Pinterest executive just showed off mock-ups for new power buttons, including a "Buy" button to accompany various pins.
Pinterest is a popular platform where people "pin" a wide variety of things they like, from recipes to art, clothes, or something else. For several months now, rumors suggested that Pinterest was gearing up to add a "Buy" button soon. Users would benefit from an easier way to purchase the items they like, while Pinterest would expand its service to become an e-commerce force.
At MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital conference in San Francisco, Tim Kendall, head of partner products at Pinterest, revealed some intriguing examples of how the company plans to implement "action buttons."
Such power buttons would allow users to browse through various pins on Pinterest and be able to buy an item or add it to their Amazon Wish List. Kendall outlined detailed mock-ups of how these utility buttons could act and it all sounds quite promising.
The executive suggested that companies such as retailer Amazon and grocery delivery service Instacart might benefit from its new service. When discovering a delicious recipe on Pinterest, for instance, users could click a utility button and order the ingredients from Instacart. Similarly, discovering pins with clothes or other items would also allow users to add the products to their Amazon Wish List or shopping cart, with a single click.
These examples are just potential applications for now, but Kendall said that Pinterest is currently working on a system that would allow any company to add buy buttons on its scrapbooking service.
Pinterest aims to focus on a commercial strategy not only to draw more revenue, but also to better differentiate itself from social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. Pinterest currently has more than 70 million users, but it's not a social network, the executive highlighted.
"One of the biggest misconceptions about Pinterest, even by people that use Pinterest, is that we're a social network," said Kendall.
While Facebook and Twitter activity mostly focuses on recounting the past or sharing the present, Pinterest is a "tool for you to figure out what you want to do in the future," Kendall added.
With this e-commerce strategy, Pinterest itself is looking forward to the future. The six-year-old scrapbooking service currently draws revenue from "promoted pins" companies pay for, as these paid posts are the most visible to Pinterest users among all content. Diving into e-commerce, however, could significantly boost the company's revenues, and set Pinterest apart from ad-supported social networks.
Utility buttons are not yet available on Pinterest, but it shouldn't be too long now before companies can sell their products via pins and users can easily purchase what they discover on the service.
