It appears the wait for the ability to buy cool items on Pinterest is not far off. Users have long wanted this feature so they could buy products directly from their Pinterest account instead of having to click over to the company website that is selling the desired item. Tim Kendall, Pinterest’s head of partner products, talked specifically about the new feature this week. He did make it clear that this won’t happen immediately, though his statements did get fans of Pinterest excited about the possibilities on the horizon.
I am a big fan of Pinterest, along with tons of other pinners of course. There is no limit to the interesting things you can find on the site. It has the domino effect of one interesting click turning into an hour of your time spent on the various boards you have created. How will the ability to buy items affect the user experience? That is a question I am sure the creators of Pinterest have thought about for the majority of their days for a couple years now.
On one hand it will be a great revenue stream for Pinterest. They make money with promoted pins now, but direct sales will no doubt increase profits. Visitors to the website already love browsing, and many of their pins are basically a wish list. And what’s a wish list without the ability to make that wish come true? Also, it is great for consumers to have another platform from which to buy things. Competition is good to keep our prices low and maybe it will spur some innovation from stagnant marketplaces like eBay.
There can be no downside to a buy button on Pinterest, right? Wrong. Some fans of Pinterest will be turned off by their beloved site going “commercial.” These type people would love for the site to remain clear of capitalism, although these folks fail to realize Pinterest would not exist if there were no profits to be had.
I do look forward to having the option to buy certain items on Pinterest. I am certainly not a shopoholic so I won’t make a difference in the profits of Pinterest. But just having another place to shop will be cool, and there is no shortage of cool things on Pinterest.
