Pinterest is looking to make a bigger push on live-stream shopping, with the expansion of Pinterest TV into Canada providing a new opportunity to showcase its video shopping tools leading into the holiday season.
As explained by Pinterest:
“Pinterest is kicking-off ‘Shop the Holidays on Pinterest TV’ with 10 hours of daily programming running from November 15-18th in Canada and the US. Over sixty brands and four major North American publishers are taking part in the series, which will include over 40 hours of shoppable content.”
Participating brands include JENNY BIRD, Wayfair and NUDESTIX.
The programming itself will be categorized by vertical, with a focus on gift-giving and holiday shopping.
“Brands will showcase popular gift guide products, announce discounts and flash sales.”
Live-stream shopping remains a key area of potential for every social app that’s exploring commerce, based on the rapid ascension of the format in Asian nations. In China, for example, live-stream shopping is projected to drive over $US180 billion in direct sales this year alone, up from $US67 billion in 2019.
As a result, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram are all exploring live shopping options. And while it hasn’t caught on with western audience as yet, with so much potential, you can bet that each app is going to push the option as hard as they can as a means to generate more revenue - both for themselves and creators.
Because amid changing data usage restrictions, and broader economic shifts, this hasn’t been a banner year for social media ads. That’s forced the platforms to explore whatever other options they can, and direct shopping could provide a solid avenue for independent growth.
A larger problem, however, is that adoption of eCommerce hasn’t sustained the growth it saw during the pandemic. Overall, online sales have reverted back to the mean as physical stores have re-opened, and that reduced momentum has also meant that the adoption of live-stream shopping has also been slowed, while western audiences just have been as enthused by live spending.
But it could still take off, and this holiday season seems like the prime opportunity for the platforms to make a big push to see if they can trigger more interest.
In addition to this, Pinterest is also partnering with select publishing partners on seasonal ‘gift guides’ in the app, which will provide additional gift guidance for followers and fans.
