Pinterest’s chief shopping officer moves to adviser role

Dive Brief:

About seven months after joining the social media company, Pinterest’s Chief Shopping Officer Julie Bornstein is stepping down from the position to move into an adviser role, according to details Pinterest shared with Retail Dive.
Bornstein joined Pinterest in June when it acquired the AI shopping platform The Yes, which she founded in 2018. Through her new strategic adviser role, she will still support Pinterest’s shopping initiatives, according to the company.
Pinterest is focused on expanding its shopping capabilities this year, with the goal of making everything on its app shoppable for users. Since acquiring The Yes — a personalized shopping feed that has since been sunsetted — the company has worked to integrate its merchant and personalization systems, as well as its team members.

Dive Insight:

While Pinterest’s chief of shopping may be moving away from the position, Pinterest is still highly focused on its shopping strategy.

“In June we acquired The Yes, with a focus on integrating its technology and industry expertise to accelerate Pinterest’s vision to become a leading shopping destination,” Pinterest CEO Bill Ready said in a statement. “We’re continuing to invest in building world-class shopping experiences across all core surfaces and building a team with deep shopping expertise. Julie has been instrumental in that process and we’re looking forward to working with her as a trusted advisor going forward.”

Just a few weeks after announcing its deal to acquire The Yes, Pinterest named Ready, former Google president of commerce, as its new CEO. Pinterest co-founder and former CEO Ben Silbermann then moved into an executive chairman position for the company.

Prior to the acquisition, the social media brand had already pivoted to focus more on mobile commerce. In October 2021, Pinterest debuted livestream shopping through Pinterest TV. It also introduced an AR feature letting users virtually try out home decor items last January. Since its acquisition of The Yes, Pinterest added new shopping features in July such as a seller API to allow them to manage their catalog in the app, as well as the ability to add videos to seller product catalogs.

Pinterest’s latest Q3 earnings report from October showed revenue increased 8% year over year to $685 million. The company also saw its global monthly active user number stay flat, and it reported a net loss of $65 million compared to a net income of $94 million the year before.