Have you ever lost track of time browsing through images on Pinterest? If so, yours truly is guilty of doing the same thing….repeatedly. If not, you’re missing out on an immensely powerful platform that can help you discover new products, get inspiration for cooking & DIY projects, and find the latest memes. With regards to discovering new products, the social media giant has announced several new features that will make it easier for users to find products and retailers to make more money. Now that’s what I call a win-win situation.

Here is a breakdown of the new features announced this week:

Buyable Pins Expanding to the Web

Only available via limited e-commerce platforms at the moment, Buyable Pins have had quite the impact on mobile devices since its launch last year. Buyable Pins allow users to purchase products directly from Pinterest without leaving the application and are differentiated from regular pins with a blue price and “buy it” button. The secure and relatively simple checkout process on mobile devices has been quite a success story for Pinterest based on some recent statistics:

• There are currently over 60 million Buyable Pins available within Pinterest.
• Around 84% of users who shop via mobile devices also browse for products on their laptops.
• 55% of users state that Pinterest is a place for shopping.
• Businesses that advertise products via Promoted Pins see a boost in in-store sales compared to industry averages.
• According to a recent study, 93% of people say that they mainly use Pinterest to research products and make purchasing decisions.

Based on the statistics above, it’s no surprise that Pinterest has decided to roll-out Buyable Pins to the web. This will maximize coverage for Buyable Pins and lead to more advertisers signing up to take advantage of a growing platform within the e-commerce marketing space. At the moment, it seems like Buyable Pins are only available in the U.S. and/or for products listed in USD. Additionally, integration is currently only available with five major e-commerce platforms:

• Shopify
• Magento
• BigCommerce
• Demandware
• IBM Commerce

Add Buyable Pins in Pinterest’s Shopping Bag

Regardless of which platform you’re using to shop on Pinterest, you will now be able to add products to cart. This was a long time coming for the social media platform, especially with the successful venture into Buyable Pins as referenced above. Once you’re done shopping, you will be able to review your order with each retailer and subsequently complete each transaction.

The beauty of the new Shopping Bag feature is that users will be able to switch back and forth between devices and pick up where they left off, providing a seamless and optimized user experience. While Buyable Pins are limited to certain brands and platforms at the moment, once these features become live globally, Pinterest will most likely start to pull some market share from both Google and Amazon when it comes to digital commerce. Having the ability to purchase from multiple sites within one application is certainly a distinct advantage for the young social media platform, which is something that is not available via Amazon nor Google…..yet.

Visual Search – Find Products within a Pin

Possibly the most interesting feature announced by Pinterest this week is the in-Pin search functionality that will allow users to receive recommended products from a single pin. As shown in the interactive example below, the Visual Search feature will automatically tag relevant items within an image and then provide recommendations from within the platform. Dimitry Kislyuk, software engineer for the Visual Search team, describes this feature as “automatic object detection to visual search”

Dimitry went on to say that the Visual Search team is currently building technology that will allow users to get recommendations based on photos they upload in the real-time. Just think about this for a second: you’ll be able to receive instant recommendations for products just by uploading a photo to Pinterest. Not only does this provide an immensely interactive feature that will enhance the user experience, but it gives advertisers new opportunities to increase brand awareness and capture new traffic.

Pinterest is now a Major Ecommerce Marketing Platform

While revenue growth has been slow for Pinterest compared to the other major social media platforms, these updates represent an opportunity for Pinterest to make a name for itself in the e-commerce space. The ability to check out within the platform is similar to Purchases on Google, which was announced by the search engine giant last year. Additionally, the Visual Search feature, once fully optimized and rolled out, will increase user engagement and lead to more purchases within Pinterest, giving the social media platform a distinct advantage in an otherwise crowded online environment. As stated above, Pinterest is adding new interactive features that will make online shopping an even more enjoyable experience.

Be on the lookout for these new features over the next couple of weeks.