6 ways to use Pinterest to boost online (and in-store) sales

In this 5-minute read:

  • Create a Pinterest business account
  • Why retailers should us Pinterest
  • Ways to increase online (and offline) sales with Pinterest

When people need inspiration for gifts, new home projects, outfits, recipes, and just about anything else, they often look to Pinterest. 

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Seventy-seven percent of Pinners (people who use Pinterest) have found new brands or products on Pinterest. That’s a pretty compelling reason to try boosting your business’s sales with this platform. 

Create a Pinterest business account

Before you can take advantage of the many benefits Pinterest can offer your business, you’ll need to create a business account on Pinterest. 

Check out our guide: How to create a Pinterest account for your small business

Once your account is set up, you can start generating traffic to your website and physical location through creating beautiful pins to inspire your target audience. 

Why use Pinterest for your small business

As mentioned, Pinterest is a place for people to gain inspiration. That means they are actively searching for ideas to fuel their creativity in a variety of areas. That also means that if they find the right item to suit their needs, they might just buy it right there and then—assuming you’re set up to sell online. 

People on Pinterest are ready to make purchases, so you should put your brand in front of them. 

A few more reasons Pinterest is a valuable resource:

  • Pinterest receives millions of views every day
  • Pinterest provides more opportunities to gain links to your website, meaning more traffic and leads
  • User engagement is through the roof
  • Pinterest integrates with your website, Facebook profile, and Twitter account
  • You can learn more about what your customers love through user trends

How to increase online (and offline) sales with Pinterest

Now you know why Pinterest can be impactful for your business, but what can you actually do to take advantage of the opportunities it can provide?

Great question!

We have six awesome ways to boost your online sales through the power of Pinning. (And, when people see the buzz around your online sales, they’ll be more likely to visit your physical store, as well!)

1. Use high-quality photos

 As you are creating Pins, make sure they look good. Pinterest, like most social media platforms, is incredibly visual. If something isn’t pretty and eye-catching, it isn’t likely to get much attention. 

pinterest retail

Every business that sells any products should have professional photos of them, so be sure to use those when you are adding them to Pinterest. 

Even better, rather than just including a basic product image with a white backdrop like you might have for your eCommerce platform, take some photos of your product in use for people to see the application of it. 

If you can’t get a professional photographer for your Pinterest images, do a little research on how to take some high-quality images with your own phone or camera and use those. Or, hit up any teenage photogs you know, and offer them a box of donuts in exchange for some quality pics.

Just make it look good, and you’ll go far. 

2. Add Pinterest “Save” buttons to products

Make it easy for your customers to share their favorite products on one of their favorite social media platforms. 

Add “Save” buttons to each of your products on your website so people can easily share them to Pinterest.

There are several solutions available for adding this capability to your website. Here are a couple of the options that we like:

  • ShareThis allows you to place social share buttons on specific pages of your website
  • Pinterest for Developers will provide your web developers with the code they need to add Save buttons to your site and products

pinterest board online sales

3. Add Pinterest boards to your website

Show off that you are on Pinterest by adding your Pinterest boards to your website. You can add product and inspiration boards to show your customers the many different applications that your products have. 

Pinterest for Developers has a simple way to add Pinterest boards to any page of your website. Just fill paste the URL of the Pinterest board you want to share, select the size you want, and grab the embed code to past on your website. 

pinterest increase online sales small business

4. Run Pinterest promotions

Pinterest has a powerful advertising platform. You can advertise your products and business in the form of sponsored Pins and select specific audiences to target. 

On Pinterest’s advertising platform you can easily set up your promoted Pins by:

  • Choosing a marketing goal (build awareness, drive consideration, or grow sales)
  • Learning more about the advertising options that they offer
  • Quickly promoting a pin or setting up a more in-depth campaign

Check out Pinterest’s resources for setting up advertisements as you’re getting started. 

5. Use Rich Pins

Rich Pins are a way to add extra details to your product Pins to make them more appealing to people who are in shopping mode. Add prices to products that automatically update when you update your product price on your website, show availability, and display product information. 

The awesome thing about Rich Pins is that they are integrated with your website, so any changes you make on your website will reflect on your Pins. 

You will likely need your web developer’s help to set up Rich Pins because there is specific code that needs to be added to your website in order for this to happen. Check out Pinterest for Developers to get started. 

6. Offer value to customers with helpful Pins

Don’t just post your products on your Pinterest account. Create Pinterest boards that are dedicated to providing helpful tips and tricks that customers can use without ever purchasing a product (or to help them with the product after the purchase it). 

If you have a blog on your website with how-to guides, videos, infographics, and other visually appealing content, be sure to share those items on Pinterest. 

pinterest retail online

Create graphics for each of your blog posts that are optimized for Pinterest. Canva is a great resource for creating beautiful graphics, and they already have tons of premade Pinterest graphic templates ready for you to modify. 

Other ways to boost online sales outside of Pinterest

Pinterest is only one way to boost online sales for your business. In order to gain the most opportunities online, you need to make sure that your business has good visibility and a good online reputation. 

Check out our local SEO guide for tips to improve your online visibility. 

Womply also offers a reputation management solution that makes it a lot easier to manage all of your online reviews and listings, saving an average of 10 hours of work per week! Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!

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