Image: Shutterstock/Kostenko Maxim

Pinterest on Thursday is officially rolling out a new group of tools that will step up the shopping experience on the site. The new tools will make the site more useful for merchants and retailers -- and, by turn, create a better shopping experience for users. 

"Our vision for shopping is to make it possible to buy anything Pinners are inspired by on the platform," Pinterest SVP of engineering Jeremy King, said in a statement. 

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Pinterest has been around as an image-sharing and social media site since 2009, but as of late, it's ramping up its focus on commerce. In the past few years, different trends and technologies have quickly shifted the way people make online purchases. Pinterest should be able to capitalize on these changes. For instance, among other trends, shopping has become more social. 

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Pinterest is already making headway in this area. In 2021, the number of "Pinners" engaging with shopping surfaces on the site grew over 215%. Meanwhile, the company says that 89% of weekly Pinners use Pinterest for inspiration in their path to purchase. 

In the past few weeks, Pinterest has made some major moves in this area. The company just acquired THE YES, an AI-powered fashion-shopping platform that enables people to shop a personalized feed. And late last month, Pinterest named online commerce expert Bill Ready as its new CEO. 

The new tools announced Thursday create a more sophisticated experience for merchants. 

First, the new API for Shopping will give merchants new catalog-management capabilities and access to product metadata. With this information, merchants can give shoppers more accurate information about the price and availability of items. The API for Shopping has led to a 97% accuracy level for price and availability data, the company says. 

Pinterest is also offering a new Product Tagging on Pins capability. The site already offers standalone "product" Pins that customers can use to shop. Now, Product Tagging on Pins will let merchants add products from their catalog to scene images, making "lifestyle Pins" shoppable. In initial tests, Pinners showed 70% higher shopping intent on product Pins tagged in scene/brand images than standalone product Pins. 

Next, merchants will be able to add video to their product catalogs. They could use this capability to, for instance, give Pinners a view of a product from multiple angles. 

Lastly, Pinterest is improving the Shop Tab that merchants can add to their Business Profile. The updated feature will make it easier to manage product groups directly on the Shop tab. Merchants will also be able to customize their product group cover image and descriptions. There's also an enhanced mobile interface for a better user experience.

Image: Pinterest

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