Pinterest adds two major new features that make it easier for you to shop (FB)

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Pinterest has enhanced its social commerce efforts with a shopping cart and visual search capability to both its website and mobile app, reports Adweek.

The shopping cart lets users add items from multiple sellers in a manner similar to Amazon and then lets them checkout all items at once without ever leaving the Pinterest platform.

Visual search lets users browse within Pinterest using an image that has been posted in another user's pin. For example, one user could take a photo of a pair of shoes in another user's pin and use it to search Pinterest for similar items. This should make it easier for users to find items they want to purchase. And because retailers are not always named in pins without text descriptions, the visual search could help users find what they want.

Pinterest is also bringing Buyable Pins, the company's version of a buy button, to its website. Until now, these buttons only existed on the mobile app, where they launched last summer in an effort to keep shoppers on Pinterest throughout each stage of the purchase journey.

But the buttons did not gain much traction because customers still chose to head to retailers' websites after they found an item on Pinterest. This is part of a broader trend in which social media users worldwide do not make use of buy buttons on social platforms, according to GlobalWebIndex. Currently, just 13% of social media users are interested in using Buyable Pins.

This low interest in buy buttons has led some social media platforms, such as Twitter, to cease development on them. But Pinterest could be different because it already has an established audience that uses the platform specifically to research products. These users could decide to simply stay on Pinterest to complete their purchases.

In fact, 13% of all outgoing traffic from Pinterest leads to a retailer website, according to SimilarWeb. And the average order value of Pinterest users is $123, compared to just $55 for Facebook. Because Pinterest users are shoppers who are already engaged with the site, the Buyable Pins could boost transactions through the platform.

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