How Valuable Is Pinterest To Online Retail Sites?
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A new study finds that Pinterest is proving to be quite valuable for online retailers. While it trails Facebook in a variety of metrics, it’s gaining ground in those, and is leading in one very important metric. Plus, Facebook’s dominance only stands to increase Pinterest’s value within the other metrics.
Is Pinterest helping your business? Let us know in the comments.
Earlier this week, we looked at the following infographic from RichRelevance comparing Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, in terms of the shopping traffic they drive to retail sites:

The infographic is based on a study from the firm, which looked at 689 million shopping sessions on “leading U.S. retail sites” between January 1 and August 31.
“Every social network promises a new way of connecting consumers with retailers and brands,” said Diane Kegley, CMO of RichRelevance. “However, the big take-away from our research is that not all channels in the social space are created equal. As retailers and brands continue to sort out how to take advantage of social networks, this infographic provides great insight into better understanding the nuances of each channel, how they resonate with consumers and how marketers can take advantage of each in their own unique way.”
It may be Facebook on top in most of the metrics listed in the graphic, but Pinterest, interestingly, is blowing both Facebook and Twitter out of the water in the critical AOV (Average Order Value) metric. That is: the sum of revenue generated divided by the number of orders.
Also of note is Pinterest’s “surprisingly large share” of sessions (particularly when compared to Twitter, which has obviously been around much longer). Likewise, Pinterest is significantly higher than Twitter in share per session and revenue per session. Pinterest is gaining in both revenue per session and conversion by source, as RichRelevance points out.
It’s no surprise that Facebook is the dominant player here in most of the metrics, given its sheer size. The company recently revealed that it has 955 million active users. However, this actually serves to help Pinterest in the same metrics, given the site’s Facebook integration.
For one, Facebook is one of the log-in options for Pinterest, so many users are already using Facebook.
Facebook featured Pinterest in its “Developer Spotlight” earlier this year, taking about how Pinterest was taking advantage of the Facebook Timeline. “Pinterest focused on the most frequent and social things people do on their site – pin and follow – and built Open Graph stories that people could identify with,” explained Facebook’s Will Liu. “Pinterest also prompts people to add the app to their timelines through a clear call out that is integrated into the design of the site.”
In less than a month of launching its Facebook Open Graph integration, Pinterest saw the number of Facebook users visiting Pinterest every day increase by over 60%. Now, that stat is slightly dated at this point, as the post was from February, but the point that Pinterest is only helped by Facebook remains valid.
It’s worth noting that RichRelevance’s study only included browser-based shopping sessions and not shopping that may originate from mobile apps. This is actually a really important thing to consider for a couple of reasons. For one, Facebook says its mobile users are more likely to be daily active users.
Secondly, Pinterest has only had its new mobile apps available for about a month. In August, the company launched its new apps for Android, iPhone and iPad, which should only lead to more users, sales and brand engagement for brands. For that matter, Pinterest has only been available without an invitation for just over a month too. If it’s had this big of an impact on an invitation-only basis, it’s quite likely that we have yet to see Pinterest’s potential.
As I noted in a previous article, Pinterest’s growth and cross-platform compatibility could be just what the doctor ordered for e-commerce businesses looking to get more web traffic from social media, especially now that they have to pay Google to be listed in Google Shopping. There are various products coming out designed to get Pinterest users interested in, well, products.
ShopInterest, for example, is a DIY online shop for merchants to create pinboards of the stuff they sell.