Pinterest is opening up its Buyable Pins feature to more sellers, while at the same time, Twitter is backing away from Buy buttons that allow online merchants to use its platform as a selling channel.
BigCommerce announced on Friday that even more of its merchants can take advantage of Buyable Pins on Pinterest, providing shoppers the ability to browse and purchase products directly on Pinterest without having to leave the app – Buyable Pins show up right in Pinterest users’ feeds based on their interests and include pricing information.
In October, only a select group of BigCommerce merchants were allowed to use the selling feature. On Friday, the ecommerce platform said the feature had begun rolling out to all BigCommerce stores in the U.S. and said it would appear in sellers’ control panel when the feature becomes available to them.
BigCommerce said that since the fall, it has seen the Pinterest Buyable Pins help businesses “reach new customers, improve mobile conversions, and drive incremental website traffic.”
Of course, merchants can pay to get increased exposure through the Pinterest Promoted Pins feature, a likely incentive for Pinterest to make the Buyable Pins available.
There are some restrictions merchants should note before getting excited, however – for example, BigCommerce noted that currently Buyable Pins are limited to merchants using PayPal powered by Braintree; support for additional gateways will be added in the coming weeks.
You can find merchant requirements on this page on BigCommerce.com:
- A Pinterest business account is required.
- Merchants must agree to Pinterest’s Terms of Service and Commerce Addendum.
- Merchants must be able to reply to customer service inquiries within 1 business day.
- Merchants must be able to reply to Pinterest inquiries within 1 business day.
- Merchants must have a return policy listed on their site.
Meanwhile, Twitter has curtailed product development on its “Buy” button and product pages, according to Buzzfeed.
“Twitter’s decision to reallocate its resources in this way speak volumes about the sluggish progress so far of social commerce, a much-hyped push by social media companies to enable the sale of products directly within their platforms,” Buzzfeed wrote. “Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have all embarked on major product initiatives in this area. Twitter backing away from social commerce suggests that it’s not quite the low-hanging fruit some had hoped for.”
Many online merchants wish to use the power of social networking sites to reach new and existing customers to boost sales, but how many of them will be willing to pay to do so is a question these sites are now facing.
You can read more on the BigCommerce blog.
