The forecast: The number of US social buyers on Pinterest grew 30.5% in 2020, for a total of 12.0 million, per our estimates. By the end of 2021, that number will grow another 16.4% to reach 13.9 million.
A deeper dive:
Pinterest released Buyable Pins in 2015, which acted as the platform's main shopping ad product. In 2018, Pinterest pivoted to Product Pins, which led users directly from a post to a retailer's checkout page.
Idea Pins were rolled out in May 2021 as a copycat of Instagram Stories. Idea Pins double as a discovery mechanism to help users find new creators to follow.
Pinterest has integrated with Shopify to streamline retailers' use of Pinterest tags and merchandise uploads on the site.
"Enticing creators to make more brand-sponsored content and directly link to products via its tagging feature could help Pinterest capture a greater share of the growing social commerce market in the US," said Nina Goetzen, eMarketer analyst at Insider Intelligence.
Looking forward: Pinterest buyers will reach 15.1 million in 2022. By 2023, the number of Pinterest buyers will hit 16.0 million and represent 15.7% of US social buyers.