Pinterest has been the leading content superpower for business owners and customers alike. Now, it is also becoming the Marketplace to reckon with. Now you can even add your products to pins on Pinterest. Aside from its Pinning and click-to-read functionality, Pinterest has also extended its ‘Shop the Look’ feature to ALL business accounts (in the US), no matter what the size!
What is Shop the Look on Pinterest?
Basically, Pinterest now allows you to Tag products to a new or existing pin(s), complete with links, images and even prices!
This is one of Pinterest’s recent features – you can add products to content pins, which gives you tons of bonus ways to cash on the already strong visual interface this social channel offers.
As a blogger and content creator, you can create (or update) a solution – tips, how-to’s or advice in a blog post and link multiple products to it. This feature (similar to Buyable Pins) was earlier available only to big businesses or via third party party marketing partners like Shopify, but now it’s open to small businesses and entrepreneurs too.
Shop the Look is easy to use, it’s free and it’s pretty awesome!
How can you sell products on Pinterest and should you use this feature?
Whether you are selling physical products or digital ones, Pinterest is the go-to resource for most people looking to buy.
- You can sell all kinds of physical products whether you are creating them yourself or reselling those made by some one else.
- Market your digital products and business tools and freebies like eBooks and Checklists
- Build an audience to sell your online courses
- A service that you offer, provided you can package it as a product e.g. 6 pre-made Canva templates
Plus, given the ‘shelf-life benefits’ of Pins and ease of search with visuals, products with images and links get long-range reach!
Also read: Still debating whether to be on Pinterest? Here are some really great reasons why your business MUST be on Pinterest!
Why Pinterest is great for entrepreneurs!
Advantages – how does Product tagging help you?
Linking your (and affiliate) products give your business more visibility as well as click opportunities!
You can also get traffic to your Etsy shop or eCommerce website.
Users are often looking for answers and ideas on Pinterest and it’s an effective channel to sell them as they explore solutions.
Create more browsing and shopping opportunities
If the purpose of your pin is to create visibility for your products or services, this is a great opportunity to build interest! A visitor can see the products that you offer, right from your Pin.
More visual real estate
Products linked to pins are visible right below the Pin so it makes your Pins more ‘value added.’ It also offers an inducement for the visitor to click and discover what they can find.
Keep in mind: you need to link to 3 or more products for the the product thumbnails to be visible under the pin. But even if you add fewer ones, they are visible when someone clicks the white dot on the Pin. In the image below, there are 3 Products visible under the Pin, right on the Board.
Direct link to multiple product categories
You can not only link to a single product in that niche, but also create shoppable pins that offer you cross-sell or upsell options.
Here’s a Pin for an article on why your business should offer digital products. There are several products that are suitable for someone who is interested in this information.
Complementary products
A checklist on creating and assessing your lead magnets
A guide on 35 places to promote your lead magnets
Cross-sell product
An eBook on free design tools for content creation
Upsell product
Courses on writing great copy (to market your lead magnets)
Design Class to enable you to create branded content and flawless user experience
More visibility for the SAME products
Don’t stop at one pin or one product. Given that you can link to your content multiple times, you should create more view and click opportunities for the same product. There are 2 ways you can do this.
Blog centric: Create multiple pins for the same article and link to products A, B & C
Product centric: Create pins for different articles, but tag Product A on all (where relevant)
This example will help illustrate this better.
A Pin on creating great design has 2 products linked to it. An eBook on the best design tools (Product A) and A Guide to 21 best stock photo sites (Product B).
Another Pin on 10 legit ways to earn money and be a stay at home mom also links to the Design eBook (Product A) because it talks about becoming a Graphic Designer and this eBook would be valuable for anyone in the design business.
So one product can be shared along with different pins and to serve varying content purposes, to boot.
More clicks and conversions
Since each product has its own URL, you are in effect increasing the array of links the consumer can click on, to browse and buy.
Here is what you see when you click on a product thumbnail linked to a Pin.
Selling own and affiliate products on Pinterest
Pinterest lets you post links to your own and/ or affiliate products so it’s another great way to monetize your content. If you sell digital products, you can market your own products, as well as those for which you are a reseller, to a highly engaged online audience.
Not sure of the merits of going digital? Learn how and why your business can gain by offering Digital products!
Keep the following in mind when you are linking products.
- The products Tagging Tool on Pinterest doesn’t allow link shorteners (e.g. Bit.ly or Ow.ly etc.)
- You cannot link to an Amazon product since Amazon does not allow Pinning. If you link, you will see a message like the image below.
Some affiliate product links won’t work.
Link to more (non-product) content
This is an indirect benefit. When you link to products, you also have a chance to build linkages to your other content too. In your product descriptions, you can link to useful articles on your site – it’s a great way to share more internal links and offer value to your audience.
E.g. This eBook on Instagram in the image below shares hacks for an intermediate to advanced user.
But what if someone is just getting started on Insta. The product page also shares links to published articles (which are free!) for someone setting up their Instagram business account, there are also tips to use content or ways to max Instagram for business.
Make your profile and content more searchable, engage smartly and cash on what’s trending!
How does your customer benefit from Shop the look?
Instead of browsing or searching one product at a time, potential customers can find a whole solution from your content, right there on Pinterest, along with prices.
So if I’m looking for products for my home, I can find a whole lot of options on one Pin! Each tag (white dot) offers you different types of products, like baskets or a range of vases etc.
How do you create Shoppable Pins and sell your products on Pinterest?
If you have blog content with a link, you can tag multiple products to one Pin. Before you start, here’s what you need to know.
You need to have a business account.
It’s free and easy and absolutely worth it for your business. You can create a business account or convert a personal one to business (link).
Your products must have individual pages or links.
Every product needs its own URL or link to be tagged. Landing pages are fine too, but if it’s a Product page like Woocommerce or Shopify, Pinterest will also scrape the price and post it.
Step 1: Upload a Pin for a blog post that you want to share products for. You can also use an existing Pin.
Step 2: Click on the Pin and then the ‘tag’ icon on top left.
Step 3: Click anywhere on the image and you will get a circle and a prompt to include your product link. The image will also tell you how many products you have tagged already.
Step 4: Once you paste your link, Pinterest gives you a choice of images to choose from, for that product page, like in the image below.
Step 5: Repeat these steps for all the products you want to link to. And then click Done to save.
Step 6: If you were uploading a new Pin, choose the Board you want to save it to. An existing Pin will get saved to the same board, and when you re-pin it, the product thumbnails will show in the subsequent Boards too.
Selling products on Pinterest – a few things to note!
- You cannot use the same URL for multiple products! (within one tag)
- Ensure that you have high quality images on your product pages too. You can use any format, but square ones work best.
- Prices will only show for the ‘non-free’ products. In other words, no $0
- Again, you need 3+ products for them to show below the Pin.
How do you find the Products that someone else is selling
If a Pin has linked products, it will have a white dot on it. (The dot is not visible on boards; you can see it only when you click to an individual pin) Click on the dot to see the products. If you click on a product, Pinterest shares the image and the metadata (or summary info) from the product URL. And here’s how the product click looks.
Important things about selling products on Pinterest
Time needed: 5 minutes.
How to add and sell your Products on Pinterest
- Create and upload a Pin to Pinterest or edit an existing Pin.
You can pick a Pin for a blog post that includes your products. E.g. for party products, a post on party ideas or party decor works.
- Once uploaded, click on the Pin and then the ‘tag’ icon on top left.
You can add products to your image to build a Pin people can shop
- Now click anywhere on the Pin image. You will see a circle and a prompt to add the link to your product.
Pinterest will also tell you how many products you have tagged (or added) already.
- In the prompt, paste the link to your product page.
- Select the image for that product, which Pinterest will pick from your page. (or you can choose if you have more than 1)
- Repeat these steps for all the products you want to link to. Click Done to save.
FAQs about Shop the look Pins!
What kind of Products can I sell on Pinterest?
You can sell any product or service that you can tag (or link to) online. This includes physical products, digital products like eBooks and Courses, goods from your Etsy shop. Even your affiliate products (except those from Amazon.)
I have an Amazon affiliate account. Can I link and sell those products on Pinterest?
No, Pinterest does not let you tag any product from Amazon. This is what it says,”Sorry, this site doesn’t let you save ideas to Pinterest.”
How many products can I link to one pin on Pinterest?
As many as you like. You can even create several tags, say, one for each category. And each tag can have 1 or more products. So a living room pin can have 1 tag for furniture and 1 tag for decor. And each tag may link to several products (like sofa and tables; and art & curtains).
Conclusion
Pinterest is a great channel to garner clicks and traffic to not only your content and products. And selling your products on Pinterest is also an awesome way to build multi-layer visibility and you can cross-link products as well. The positives of tagging your products and enabling the shopping option are numerous. So whether you market digital content like courses and templates, or sell physical products you (or someone else) manufactures, tying your products to your articles ends up being a win-win for both.
And ultimately, for you.
Happy Selling!
Pooja Krishna is an Entrepreneur, Business Mentor and Mom. She has worked both in large corporates and managed startups over the last 20+ years.
She’s a co-founder at Maroon Oak, and is founded Win Thinks, where she writes, speaks and teaches about Digital Media, Brand Building and Future Ready Businesses. A day trader for over a decade, Pooja launched Trading Paces to educate amateur and pro stock traders. As a classroom mentor, Pooja loves teaching students across the U.S. about job skills and entrepreneurship. Read about her on Huffington Post and Forbes.
A trivia buff and yoga & hula hoop enthusiast, she’s discovering the pleasure of drawing Zentangle patterns for ‘creative mindfulness.’
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It’s not Amazon it’s pinterest that won’t allow Amazon’s tracking code in the link. Also when adding a walmart link pinterest strips the affiliates number out so they get no credit. Pinterest is not a customer friendly company
That’s a good point. However, the image shows the message Pinterest shares when you try to add a link from Amazon.
I love using Pinterest for many different reasons and this post has touched on some new and interesting strategies that I’m definately going to try. Thanks for the tips
Great info, thanks very much
This is so cool, I had no idea this was possible! I can’t wait to try it out!
We are looking to spend more time figuring out how to monetize our blog in the next month—so that I can finally run our businesses full time. This post was just what I needed to be able to reimagine Pinterest as a vehicle for sales. Thanks again.
WHoaaaaaaaa I am so glad I found this. You definitely dropped some gems here for me.
I’ve learned that I can rely on your posts for timely, relevant, USEFUL information with practical applications. Very cool. Thank you.
love this topic! every single one of them is such an important information. Thanks so much for sharing
Wow this is really beautiful. I always knew Pinterest has so much to offer. Saving this.
I like this post a lot but you should also do one on how to sell things on instagram. I keep seeing ads where I can buy items from the picture and I would want to incorporate that.
Oh this is really cool! I am going to share this with my friend who has an Etsy shop!
This is so cool that I just pinned. Very useful information!
Pinterest is a social media tool that not explored as much. I like it better than instagram
Wow… I use pinterest a LOT and didn’t know that this was an option *facepalm* Unfortunately it’s a lot of extra work. I usually rely on tailwind. Hopefully I will be able to get a VA soon who can spend the time creating these rich pins. Also, did you know that video pins are a thing now? I just found this out too lol
I’m new toPinterest, but this one’s a new feature that I have yet to try. You have writteen it explicitly well!! And I have learned much onhow I could make this work on my end. Great post! Hoping that I can incorporate this in my future pins!