Pinterest and Instagram have introduced ‘buy buttons’, the Financial Times reported.
Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann announced the “buyable pins” on the online scrapbooking site, with retailers including Macy’s and Nordstrom signed up to sell on the platform. More than 2 million products will be available to buy in the US on the iPhone or iPad later this month, with apps for Android users and international expansion coming later. Users will be able to buy without leaving the app, using credit card details stored with Pinterest’s payment partners Stripe, PayPal-owned Braintree or Apple Pay and with their addresses forwarded to the relevant retailer. Retailers will be able to use Promoted Pins, Pinterest’s advertising unit, to get their products in front of new audiences. The company launched the buy buttons in June to give it time to get more retailers on the platform before the holiday season.
Instagram also announced a new advertising product that allows retailers to sell from their mobile app. Instagram had been slowly rolling out advertising, focusing on brand marketing that matched the magazine-like high quality images that users often upload to the platform. But it has now allowed advertisers to add a button to encourage viewers to click through to their ecommerce site, install an app or sign up to a mailing list. Unlike Pinterest, Instagram’s shopping experience does not take place completely within the app, but it will benefit from Facebook’s ability to target users based on demographics, interests and retailer customer lists. Instagram will allow Facebook Marketing Partners and agencies to use Facebook infrastructure, expanding throughout this year.
