Target is leveraging Pinterest with a new microsite that merchandises products with the combination of top-pinned items and best reviews on Target.com.

The mass merchandiser is one of the first brands to incorporate Pinterest’s recently-released API to create a custom microsite. With mobile and social media inherently working together for retailers, the Pinterest-fueled site highlights the big bets that marketers are taking in creating more tailored and customized shopping experiences.

“Target Awesome Shop is designed to create a curated shopping experience while providing guests a new opportunity to discover great, socially trending Target products,” said Eddie Baeb, spokesman at Target, Minneapolis, MN.

“We’re excited to see how our guests respond to this new site,” he said.

Pining for mobile?
The site is optimized for mobile and can be accessed at http://awesomeshop.target.com.

The site aggregates top-pinned items on Pinterest and matches the products with the items raking in top reviews on Target.com.

Products featured on the Target Awesome Shop have at least a four-star guest review. Products that do not include reviews are also eligible to be featured on the site.

A menu button slides out from the left side of the screen to break the products down into categories such as home, women, furniture, baby and toys.

There is also a deal tab where consumers can find items on sale.

The products are set up vertically to mimic the same experience of a mobile news feed on a social media site.

Clicking on a product shows consumers the number of reviews the product has received on Target.com and its average rating out of five stars.

Below, the site shows the number of recent Pins via Pinterest that an item has received.

Clicking a second time on a product leads consumers to the correlating page on Target’s mobile site where consumers can read the reviews and checkout.

Target is also promoting Awesome Shop on its mobile site homepage.

The screenshot of the site

Social is mobile
Target was one of the initial brands to leverage Pinterest’s API to create curated batches of products off of the social media site (see story).

As more social media activity takes place on smartphones and tablets, mobile will play a big part in how Pinterest monetizes its content in the future.

Therefore, marketers using Pinterest’s API should ensure that all product pages are optimized for mobile.

Pinterest in particular is playing a big role for Target this year.

Back in October, Target unveiled what the company claims to be its biggest social and digital holiday campaign that incorporates the #MyKindofHoliday hashtag across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram (see story).

As part of the holiday campaign, Target has created a planning resource called “Best.Party.Ever” on Pinterest.

Additionally, the brand’s catalogs are integrated with Pinterest, and there are sections of Target’s stores and Web site that show off the top-pinned items.

Moreover, one of Target’s 20 holiday TV spots was influenced by Pinterest and includes a big Pinterest board.

“This year’s holiday campaign is the most digitally enabled in Target’s history,” Mr. Baeb said.

“The marketing campaign hashtag #MyKindOfHoliday is set up to drive social conversation and serves as the centerpiece of Target’s marketing campaign,” he said. “Guests will see the #MyKindOfHoliday hashtag at the end of every ad, in our catalogs and in stores, and we’ll encourage guests to join the conversation about their traditions.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York