Social and hobby site Pinterest has enabled ecommerce by introducing ‘buy buttons’ and a payments facility.
People can now buy items they see on Pinterest by using the “buy it” button that now exists next to the “pin it’ button. Buyers can pay using Apple Pay or credit card. Payment processing will be handled by Stripe and PayPal’s Braintree.
Pinterest will be partnering with merchants who will fulfil the purchases which is will launch stateside this month. Interestingly Pinterest won’t be taking a cut from sales at launch. It’s not clear whether the facility will be opened up to small sellers in due course but it seems like a sound bet.
There are lots of reasons why this is interesting. Pinterest is a very successful site with stacks of traffic and a very loyal and passionate community of users. And it is a potentially credible new player in the ecommerce space.
We published an infographic last week that looked at Pinterest and its audience and it’s worth revisiting with this news in mind. Of particular note is the monthly audience go 73 million that the site enjoys.
