The calendar may say summer but retailers are already kicking off planning for the make-or-break holiday shopping season. For a brand, getting noticed in this noisy time is hard enough, but driving people to purchase is the ultimate challenge. When it comes to connecting with holiday shoppers and nudging them to buy, one platform outperforms the rest: Pinterest.
For users, all social platforms aren’t created equal. And when it comes to shopping, Pinterest is the place many people go to make purchasing decisions. In 2023, holiday shoppers spent upwards of 40% more on Pinterest compared to other visual platforms.[1]
Pinners are inspiration seekers and motivated shoppers
Pinterest users are big planners and big spenders. They turn to Pinterest to take their holiday festivities to new heights, craving novel ideas and proactively seeking thoughtful gifts, recipes and decor. And their activity is on the rise. Compared to Q2 2022, Pinners demonstrated a 50% increase, year-over-year, in clicks and saves of shoppable items in Q2 2023.[2]
Gen Z, in particular—the largest consumer group on Pinterest[3]—come to the platform in search of more personalized holiday experiences. And since 66% of Gen Z and Millennials who use Pinterest weekly say they celebrate more holiday occasions or moments than older generations, there are plenty of moments to plan.[4]
“Gen Z is our fastest-growing and most engaged audience,” shares Stacy Malone, vice president of global business marketing at Pinterest.[5] “They tell us Pinterest is where they go to manifest a life they love. Gen Zers even started calling Pinterest ‘the Manifestation app,’” she explains.[6]
While some may gripe that in-store holiday displays happen earlier every year, the truth is retailers are simply matching shopping behavior. Data shows consumers are starting their holiday shopping as early as the summer months, Bankrate notes.[7] Retailers are shifting holiday promo timelines to match. And as many brands already know, they can reach those early holiday planners on Pinterest. Weekly Pinterest users rank the platform as the number one most helpful platform for planning for their 2024 winter holidays.[8]
Bringing inspiration and action together
As people flock to Pinterest to curate ideas and make purchasing decisions, the platform is uniquely positioned to help retailers convert that high shopping intent into sales.
“People use Pinterest with intent. They search for inspiration, and 96% of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded[9]—meaning people come with a general idea, but don’t know specifically what they want. For retailers, this gives them the opportunity to reach people who are actively looking for products such as theirs, and make a connection that could lead to a purchase,” Malone adds.
Paired with a menu of performance advertising solutions, the high buying intent of users can lead to more lower-funnel conversions. For the 2023 holiday season, Urban Outfitters wanted to reach a broader audience of holiday shoppers, across more product verticals. With that goal in mind, the retailer designed ads to reach both people shopping for holiday outfits and people purchasing gifts. To maximize their campaign for shopping, Urban Outfitters implemented Pinterest’s direct links feature for the first time. With direct links, people who get inspired can more easily act on that inspiration, going from an ad to the retailer’s site with fewer clicks. The strategy paid off, the brand measured 50% more conversions compared to the previous year.[10]
The proof is in the performance (data)
For marketers, the best chance of maximizing return on ad spend is to let evidence—performance data, that is—guide investments. With that in mind, Pinterest has greatly expanded its performance toolkit. With Pinterest’s Conversion API, direct links, mobile deep links and more, retailers can track and optimize campaigns in real time and convert more people shopping on Pinterest to customers.
One such retailer, PacSun, recently increased online shoppers 7x.[11] PacSun mastered targeting on Pinterest. To take their campaigns to the next level, the brand worked with their Pinterest team to adopt the new Pinterest for Salesforce Commerce Cloud app that facilitates a server-to-server data connection with the Pinterest Conversions API. With these changes, the brand improved visibility into how their campaigns translated into website visits, purchases and overall conversions.
PacSun’s success isn’t an isolated example. Pinterest’s investments in ad relevance and lower-funnel performance products have boosted shopping results for retailers. For example, ads using mobile deep links have measured an average 235% increase in conversions,[12]and ads running with direct links have delivered an average 88% lift in outbound click volume.[13]
Turning high intent into high action
At this very moment, shoppers are scouring Pinterest for ideas, gifts and their next splurges as the holiday season inches closer. Retailers can give themselves an early advantage by showcasing products to those shoppers across all stages of the buying journey.
For best results, Malone recommends building a marketing calendar that moves people through the customer journey in time for holiday shopping. Campaigns should focus on discovery in the summer, catch users as they’re making decisions from July to September, drive them to buy from October to December and then connect with post-holiday deal hunters late December through January.
“It’s harder than ever to break through, get consumers’ attention and get them to act. For retailers, the key is to reach people when they are looking for inspiration and ready to shop,” Malone concludes. For a growing number of retailers, the opportunity is evident: The holidays are the time to splurge on new goods and experiences, and Pinterest is where consumers come to do just that.
▷ It’s going to be a high-action holiday — on Pinterest. Access the Pinterest Holiday Hub for resources, insights, and best practices for high-converting campaigns.
[1] Talkshoppe, US, 2024 Winter Holidays, January 2024, study commissioned by Pinterest,Winter holiday household decision makers with holiday purchases, Weekly Pinterest users (compared to weekly users of other social platforms).
[2] Pinterest Internal Data, Global, Q2 2023 vs. Q2 2022
[3] Loyalty | Ath Power Consulting, US, Gen Z – largest consumer group in history, misunderstood, but they value rewards
[4] Pinterest Internal Data, April 2024
[5] Pinterest Internal Data, Global, June 2023.
[6] Stacy Malone on stage at DMEXCO 2023
[7] Bankrate survey, US, August 8-10, 2023
[8] Talkshoppe, US, 2024 Winter Holidays, January 2024, study commissioned by Pinterest, Winter holiday household decision makers with holiday purchases, Weekly Pinterest users.
[9] Pinterest Internal Data, Global, as of June 2023 | Note: US; calculated as % of the top 1000 most popular searches
[10] Pinterest Internal Data, US, June 2023
[11] PacSun, summer campaign results before and after app implementation, comparing 6/5/23 - 7/13/23 and 7/24/23 - 8/22/23
[12] Pinterest Internal Data, Global, May 2023 | Note: Beta results from advertisers when comparing Shopping oCPM ads with mobile deep links (n =7) vs Shopping oCPM Ads without mobile deep links (n = 40), Conversions attributed using a 1 day click attribution window
[13] Pinterest Internal Data, Global, September 2023 | Note: Beta results comparing Consideration CPC campaigns with direct links to Consideration CPC campaigns without direct links
