With the pandemic shifting more shopping online and boosting social media engagement, Crate and Barrel launched its latest Crate and Kids catalog on Pinterest, forgoing a print version for the first time.
“We want to meet our customers where and how they want to shop. With over 50% of our sales online, it makes sense for us to continue to lean into digital, especially with nearly 60% of our traffic on mobile,” says Alicia Waters, vice president of Crate and Kids and growth strategies at Crate and Barrel. “We see mobile and social as going hand in hand, so going deeper on social shopping is a logical extension for us.”
Pinterest was the right choice, Waters says, because it’s a popular destination for Crate and Kids shoppers. “We know our Crate and Kids customer comes to Pinterest for inspiration, not just for decorating but all things kids and home,” she says. “It’s also one of our fastest-growing platforms in terms of followers.”
Crate and Barrel launched a Crate and Kids digital-only catalog on Pinterest, forgoing a print version for the first time.
Crate and Kids is a Crate and Barrel brand aimed at parents of babies and young children. The online catalog includes furniture and other home goods for nurseries and children’s rooms. As of Oct. 7, Crate and Kids had 171,048 Pinterest followers. Its Pinterest page gets more than 10 million monthly visits, according to the stats listed on the page.
Pinterest is an image-sharing and social media platform that enables users to “pin” images and links on their feeds and share them with others. Users also can save pins from others onto their boards.
Ecommerce is a significant part of Pinterest’s overall business strategy. In recent years, it’s taken steps to make it easier for retailers to market on the site and for users to buy there. In early 2017, the social media site launched Shop the Look pins that allow users to pull up recommendations for similar items they can buy from a brand. In early 2019, Pinterest rolled out updates to its platform aimed at helping retailers drive more sales via the platform.
In April and late September, Pinterest rolled out new shopping tools for users and advertisers. Among the new features are ads that appear alongside visual search results and more places to shop. Pinterest also added conversion insights tools, allowing advertisers to see the impact of their paid and organic Pinterest content more easily. The platform also introduced shopping to the U.K. market.
“Shopping is a key focus at the company and our vision is to make it possible to buy anything you see on Pinterest or get personalized recommendations for something just like it,” says a Pinterest spokeswoman. “Every pin can be a starting point for shopping, and we can take you further down that purchase journey, ultimately enabling you to go from pin to purchase.”
The percentage of users who visited places to shop on Pinterest grew more than 50% in the first half of 2020, the spokeswoman says. Also, the number of users who engaged with shoppable pins increassed 44% year-over-year. Total traffic to retailers has increased by nearly 250% year over year. Pinterest does not disclose the number of brands using the site for ecommerce but says, “thousands of your favorite brands have a presence and advertise on Pinterest.”
In the second quarter of 2020, Pinterest said its number of global monthly active visitors grew to 416 million—a 39% year-over-year gain and the first time that number crossed the 400 million mark.
Pinterest, which went public in April 2019, grew its revenue for the six months ended June 30, to $544.4 million, up 17.5% from $463. 2 million for the same period in 2019. When it announced those results, Pinterest estimated year-over-year revenue growth for the month of July through July 29 would be about 50% and third-quarter year-over-year growth would be “in the mid-30% range.”
Crate and Barrel is part of Otto Group, No. 1 in the Digital Commerce 360 Europe 500.