• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 4, 2019

Pinterest on Monday introduced tools to help advertisers make it easier to sell goods on the site by allowing them to upload their full product catalogs to the website. The move turns Pinterest into a storefront for brands that allows site visitors to search and discover specific products through new buttons and icons.

“It’s not a linear funnel,” said Amy Vener, retail vertical strategy lead at Pinterest. “We’re trying to connect products to consumers during those inspired moments that lets consumers pivot quickly into the shopping mode.”

The new tools and dashboard in Catalog give marketers a way to organize products in feeds, making their images easier to search and discover. It allows them to post Shopping Ads directly from the feeds. This makes it easier to keep prices and stock information up to date, as Shopping Ads now is available to businesses in a self-serve platform.

The feed service is free to merchants and site visitors.

A handful of brands and retailers have been working with Pinterest prior to the rollout. Room & Board, for example, has been working with Pinterest since 2012. They were a beta partner for this service.

The retailer has seen a 51-times return on ad spend on Promoted Pins campaign, as well as 33-times ROAS from their Shopping Ads campaign. These results exceeded goals by 127% between February and June of last year.

“They’re seeing strong results because they look at the entire journey,” she said. “Not just the last click.”

Pinterest also launched three new places for those visiting the site to search and find inspiration. One is focused on related products from a brand. The section that will help people discover “more” from a brand will roll out beneath the product pins. The second is focused on personalized shopping recommendations. The “more ideas” icon will highlight personalized ideas. Finally, shopping search allows people to find more in-stock products.