Pinterest pushes for conversions with new Shopping List feature

The news: Pinterest rolled out a new Shopping List feature that automatically collects a user’s saved shoppable Product Pins in one place and notifies them about price changes.

Why it could succeed: Shopping List is among the strongest of Pinterest’s recent social commerce plays, because it works seamlessly with the way Pinterest users are already using the platform—at its core, it’s just one more way to organize Pins. Meanwhile, before Pinterest can get users to shop via its new livestreaming or visual search tools, it needs to get them to actually use those new features in the first place.

Why it matters: Social commerce is still an emerging trend in US shopping behavior, making up just 4.0% of all US retail ecommerce sales, and conversion remains elusive. In order for social platforms like Pinterest to capitalize on this and move the needle, conversion-focused features like Shopping List will be essential.

So far, Pinterest has focused most of its ecommerce efforts on bolstering its existing strength in upper-funnel discovery and inspiration. Even though it’s the third-most popular platform for shopping among US digital buyers behind Facebook and Instagram, only 4% of respondents to an April 2021 Bizrate Insights survey said they bought something from Pinterest in the past month.