The pursuit of e-commerce via social media increases, with both Pinterest and Instagram having recently taken steps to make shopping easier.

Pinterest is the latest platform to show its intent – wanting to move beyond being a scrapbook of pleasing images to a users’ marketplace for fashion – as the online pinboard added a new shopping function to its site this month

Adding shoppable pins seems a natural addition to Pinterest’s images of weddings, home décor, and other miscellaneous creative content, but whether it can convince its 250 million worldwide users that it’s a destination to search for fashion buying remains to be seen, Drapersonline argued.

Hundreds of millions of pins on the platform’s posts now link directly to product pages on retailers’ sites, allowing customers to buy with a few clicks. Shopping pins appear in the home feed, search and recommendations.

“[Today’s] shoppers look for streamlined purchasing in apps they are already using, which in today’s world means social media and online platforms,” said Tim Weingarten, head of shopping product at Pinterest.

Asos, John Lewis and Burberry are among the big names using Pinterest to show off their latest collections, or their take on a particular trend.

Fashion brands have flocked to Instagram, which has also made several notable changes to make shopping easier and more direct; already more than 90 million people around the world already click on Insta’s shopping tags every month.

Three new features include a new collections feature which allows consumers to privately store links to products they may want to buy later in a “shopping section”. There are also shoppable product tags that show up in videos. The same feature was launched for still-image posts in September.

The third feature is a redesigned “shop” for business profiles that makes it easier to buy specific items. The platform is also reported to be working on a specific shopping app.

Instagram clearly sees massive potential in e-commerce, Mashable reported. Currently 25 million businesses have Instagram profiles, and the platform has become an important interface for smaller and direct-to-consumer companies.

Snapchat, too, is focusing on shopping with shoppable ads in its “Stories” feature, and a partnership with Amazon.

Another e-retail development in the social sphere is 21 Buttons. This allows influencers to link their posts to retailers and earn a commission on sales. It has signed up one million registered users in the UK since its launch in 2017.

Sourced from Drapersonline, Mashable; additional content by WARC staff