Today I had the pleasure of breakfast with Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest, along with Beth Horn, VP Southern Europe, UK & Ireland, and Matt Madrigal their CTO, to discuss some of the trends forecast for 2026 and released in their Pinterest Predicts report (read in full here).
Firstly the trends, well they’ve got me to a tee on some of these. I’m definitely up for the gummy bears aesthetic, loving in equal quantity SoSweet and Haribo! And if you saw my shirt today you’d know that FunHaus is right up my street – ‘bold stripes, sculptural silhouettes and just a wink of clownish charm’ is how Pinterest describe this trend and it looks like my tastes are bang on trend.
And let’s not miss Glamoratti – The decade of decadence is back in style – and honestly, it’s about time. Tailored suits with sculpted shoulders will grow three sizes. Funnel necks will be the base of every outfit. And jewellery? Well, that’ll get chunkier, bolder and golder!
But what struck me most about the conversations over breakfast was that Pinterest have positioned themselves right in the sweet spot for ecommerce in 2026 and beyond. For many years, Pinterest was where you went for inspiration, Google was where you went when you didn’t know where to buy, and marketplaces were where you went when you knew what you wanted.
Pinterest today however is very different from the top of the funnel inspiration that was once it’s raison d’etre, Today they operate right down to the bottom of the funnel, ready to send clicks to retailer’s websites. This is incredibly important as it’s getting ever more costly to pay for CPA marketing. And we’re on the cusp of a new generation of Agentic Commerce and who knows what impact that will have on traditional search marketing and customer acquisition.
There are plenty of platforms out there for when you know what you want to buy. There are also plenty of search engines where can find where you can buy once you know you want it. But there aren’t many platforms where you can be inspired, discover what you didn’t know you wanted, and collate a look and feel, whether it’s for an outfit for your next event, or decorate a room or even your whole house. That’s where Pinterest is winning and now that they operate right down to sending a click to the retailer’s website, why wouldn’t you be positioning your brand on Pinterest?
