As long rumored, the “buy” button is coming to Pinterest. Pinterest co-founder Ben Silberman announced Buyable Pins, allowing Pinners to buy something directly from a pin.
Noting that 80 percent of the people buying things via Pinterest are doing so via mobile, Silberman announced this news to select members of the media and prominent Pinners:
Every year, we’ve been introducing more and more pins with more and more useful types of information. … People have been super clear about what they want next: People want to buy things.
Buyable Pins are coming to iPhone and iPad later this month. Rollouts for Android and desktop are planned in the future, but with no timetable yet.
Users will be able to scroll through Buyable Pins when they search for certain terms.
Pinners can enter in their credit card or Apple Pay information, but the company is ensuring the utmost safety and security of users’ vulnerable info. Customers will only enter payment info and address once, and the app will ask to confirm password on major purchases.
Pinterest has partnered with several top brands at launch, such as Macy’s, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. Through a partnership with Shopify, mid-size and smaller businesses such as including Madesmith and Poler Outdoor Stuff will also be able to sell directly to Pinners.
Via Shopify, Pinterest is hoping to be able to offer this service to individual sellers and mom-and-pop stores — a possible Etsy combatant.
Wendy Lu, an iOS engineer at Pinterest, discussed how Buyable Pins were created with security in mind:
Having a beautiful and speedy app is great, but we also need to make sure it’s secure. We’ve decided that the fewer people that have access to your credit card info, the better. That includes us.
Lu described the process by which payment information will be shared and stored. The data will be encrypted via the payment partner and shared with merchants.
There will be no fee for Pinners or merchants. Pinterest doesn’t gain commission on transactions via Buyable Pins, but there could come a time in the future where a Buyable Pin could be sponsored. Right now, Pinterest engineers explained to SocialTimes that the company is focused on the user experience first, revenue later.
Readers: What do you think of Buyable Pins?
Images courtesy of Victor Ng/Pinterest.
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