Have you heard of Pinterest shop yet? If not, you have come to the right place! Pinterest currently has a feature that allows business profiles to pin their products, create product catalogs, and feature their shoppable products on their profile. Selling on Pinterest can help inspire your potential customers and give them some context as to why they need and want your product.
Pinterest Shop Guide
If you are unsure of where to start, allow us to take you through a step-by-step guide on how to open your Pinterest shop!
SET UP YOUR BUSINESS PROFILE
Setting up a business account is the first step to opening your Pinterest shop. Additionally, creating a business profile allows you to gain access to analytics and important insights while establishing a professional presence. Here is a simple step-by-step guide to setting up your business profile:
- Navigate to the Create Account page on Pinterest
- Enter your email, password, and age before selecting Create account
- Follow the next steps for setting up your profile:
- Select a profile photo
- Enter the business name
- Add your website
- Select your country and language
- Select your business focus
- Select your business type
- Select whether or not you would like to run ads
- To get started, choose to either:
- Create a Pin
- Grow your audience
- Showcase your brand
- Or hit X to view your profile
CLAIM WEBSITE
Once you have your business profile set up, the next step to opening your Pinterest shop is claiming your website.
To do so, you have to add an HTML tag to your website’s source code so Pinterest can confirm that you own the website you want to claim. An HTML tag is a piece of text that describes a web page’s content. Be mindful that different website hosts have different instructions for accessing their source codes. Check out the step by step guide below to claiming your site!
Adding an HTML tag to your website:
- Log into your Pinterest business account
- Click the downturned arrow in the top right corner to see menu options
- Select Settings
- Select Claim
- Click Claim next to your website
- Click Add HTML tag
- Click Continue
- Navigate to the idex.html file for your website and add the tag to the <head> section. This will be different for every user, depending on how your website is being hosted.
- Navigate back to Pinterest and enter your website URL and select verify.
After completing this process Pinterest will check your HTML tag and claim your website for you.
PREPARE PRODUCT DATA SOURCES
The next step to opening your Pinterest shop is preparing data source URLs for the products you would like to feature as ads in your shop. To put it simply, creating a data source will create a pin for your product. To begin creating pins, follow these steps:
- Navigate to Ads and then Catalogs on your business profile
- Enter the product name as the name of your data source
- Enter your data source URL
- Accepted formats include http://, https://, ftp://, or sftp:// with no credentials in the URL
- Select the file format
- Select the default availability for your product
- Enter your credentials for Product feed login details if applicable
- Select the country/region your product is shipped from
- Select the language that matches your data source
- Select the product currency
- Select an optional timezone
- Select create pins
After entering your data source information Pinterest will send you a confirmation email updating you on the status of your data sources. Once your data sources have been processed you will have a feed of products featured on your profile.
If you would like to edit your data sources in the future, navigate to your catalogs page and select the edit icon.
Keep in mind in order to keep your products up to date on your Pinterest you must update your data sources regularly to reflect what products you have available. Make sure you follow their Merchant Guidelines. They may remove products or accounts that violate these guidelines.
CREATE SHOP
Once you upload a data source to Pinterest through Catalogs, it’s time to organize your products to create a professional Pinterest shop.
First, you want to filter your products to create product groups. When filtering your products Pinterest will prompt you to select both the product category and type.
Keep in mind that your product group names will be displayed in your Shop. Use a Pinner-friendly name that reflects the products in the product group. From the Product Groups view in Catalogs, click the star to feature up to 8 product groups.
QUICK SHOP TIPS
Now that you have your Pinterest shop all setup, here are some tips to make your shop stand out.
Use the “Shop the Look” feature to tag multiple products in one pin!
This is great for fashion businesses, but it can be used in other industries, including home decor.
Many people come to Pinterest for inspiration and they may not know they really want something – or even know it exists – until they see a photo that sparks their interest. For example, if your business was in the home decor category, featuring a photo of an aesthetically pleasing living space would allow you to feature many products in one pin. Multiple products in this photo, such as a comforter, throw pillow, and a candle, could all be tagged as a white dot on the photo and show the customer what that exact product is.
Don’t underestimate the power of inspiring content to inspire pinners to purchase a product.
Keep in mind your Pinterest shop is not your actual shop.
Meaning that Pinterest is a platform meant for browsing, inspiring others, and being inspired. This is a great platform to incorporate creative content marketing as opposed to solely product-based content.
Pinterest is a great place to show off your brand’s personality and inspire people to follow your brand for its creativity. Think about it, no one wants to “follow” products, but they will follow a brand. Use this as an opportunity to post content such as blog posts, gift guides, tutorials, or anything that really tells a story.
PINTEREST SHOP TAKEAWAYS
Keep in mind that pinners can see Shops across all devices, and you can have up to 8 featured Shops. Pinterest is a great place to inspire people and get noticed for your creativity. This platform can really be a unique way to show people why they need your product and what its exact use would be. Anyone you inspire will be able to then navigate to your profile, see your products, and hopefully make a purchase. Now not only have you sold a product, but you are likely to find more customers that will frequently look to you for inspiration and potentially follow your profile.
Are you interested in more in-depth guidance on how to improve your Pinterest shop? Take the next step towards upping your Pinterest game and sign up for a complimentary strategy session! Simply click the link below to get a jump start!
