Zappos Launches PinPointing In An Attempt to Monetize Pinterest

Zappos has launched a new feature called “PinPointing” that scans a user’s Pinterest pins and then offers relevant recommendations based on recently pinned items. The service, still in its early stages, aims to provide users with a unique way to shop personal recommendations, by digging through social data and displaying suggestions for several items of interest in various categories such as shoes, tops, dresses, jeans, cosmetics, and even specific brands. For example, if you recently created a board entitled “Wedding,” PinPointing will return several results such as white dresses or silk ties and fancy shoes, with the hope that you might find something appealing to you that you would not have otherwise found.

While it could still use some tweaking to improve its suggestions, PinPointing is a clever way for Zappos to increase sales; According to Will Young, director of Zappos Labs, “Consumers share more often on Pinterest than on the other two social networks.” Statistics show that Pinterest visitors spend an average of 89 minutes on the site; this level of high user engagement means that it is an excellent platform for social shopping.

Few companies have been successful at converting social media recommendations into sales, however, with Pinterest being as engaging as it is, when a user finds something particularly appealing, not only will they potentially purchase it, they are far more likely to share it with their followers on Pinterest, ultimately leading to more sales and thus continuing the cycle of social shopping.

It’s still too soon to tell, but if Zappos succeeds with this model, not only will they see a bump in revenue from Pinterest posts, but it could potentially boost the value of Pinterest as well, leading other companies to take advantage of it as well.