5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest in Driving Sales – Infographic

Pinterest has been grabbing the headlines recently as its network approaches  20 million users per month.

In March, Compete.com reported that Pinterest had received 18 million unique visitors with AppData reporting that the visual social network had received a record 4.4 million daily active users on March 18.

There are reports that Pinterest’s growth is slowing but just like Twitter and Facebook, reports of its demise maybe slightly premature.

The Power of “Low Friction” Photo Sharing

Pinterest’s value to marketers is that it provides an easy to use platform for “pinning” images, photos and videos to your Pinterest account while also posting and sharing to your networks to Facebook and Twitter in the same process.

Pinterest reduces the effort and friction to share images on the social web which crowd sources your marketing and the spreading of your brand images.

This “low friction sharing” includes links back to the original sharing location. Online stores such as fashion, boutiques, homewares and gift stores can take advantage of this to drive commerce as their products are highly visual and more likely to be shared.

To understand the power of visual sharing, on Facebook research shows that photos are shared 50% more than any other types of updates. This is why Pinterest is so powerful.

I experienced it the other day when an infographic was repinned over 70 times from my blog post “64 Marketing Tips and Tactics- Infographic” .

The question though is, does it drive sales?

Does Social Commerce Work?

There are social networks and there is commerce and the popular thinking used to be that  they don’t mix. In fact there have been stories circulating on blogs that Facebook is great for engagement but not good for sales.

In digging deeper that appears to be a misconception and social commerce is alive and kicking.

Boticca.com is an online boutique for unique jewelry and fashion accessories by top emerging designers from around the world and has been using Pinterest for quite a while, where it has pinned visually enticing images of its products arranged in categories (boards) with links to the product purchase page.

Boticca Pinterest Page

Their activity on Pinterest is sizable with 67 categories (boards) that average over 700 followers for each board with 2,869 pins (products). As the quality of the photos they have used for their online store is high definition then these HD images ensure that they are also compelling on Pinterest.

Pinterest is really a product catalogue linked to their online store behind every image.

Once you click on that link it takes you to the product on Bottica’s online store where you can continue to review the product further and then make a purchase.

Bottica Facebook “Page”

Bottica’s Facebook page reveals over 26,000 “likes” that also features a prominent Pinterest “Tab” which is powered by the Facebook Pinterest App.

This Pinterest Tab which is effectively the Pinterest site embedded in Facebook allows you to access the online store directly from Facebook. Omni-commerce is evident here. You can buy from Facebook, Pinterest and the ecommerce store.

It recently researched from its own store data which social network drove more social commerce. The results are fascinating and this is from a real store with real numbers.

The 5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest

Boticca traced the sales , average sales, conversions and engagement of 50,000 visitors from Pinterest and 50,000 from Facebook.

Here are  5 things Boticca learned about marketing on Facebook compared to Pinterest

1. Pinterest users spend more when shopping at $180 vs $85 by Facebook users
2. Pinterest users spent 65% less time on the site than Facebook
3. Pinterest influenced more sales (10%) than Facebook (7%)
4. Pinterest has a 51% lower conversion rate compared to Facebook
5. Pinterest acquired 86% new users vs Facebook at 57%

The Infographic

Source: Bottica.com blog

What about You?

Are you using Pinterest for your online store? Do you have images that you could be pinning to your Pinterest acount? Do you think it would help your online stores sales and spread your brand. Look forward to hearing your stories.

More Reading

• 64 Pinterest Marketing Tips and Tactics – Infographic
• 30 Resources, Tips and Tricks for Marketing Your Business on Pinterest
• Why Business Should take an Interest in Pinterest
• Pinterest Drives more Traffic than LinkedIn and Google Plus
• 7 Ways to Use Pinterest to Promote your Business – Plus Infographic
• What is Pinterest and How Can You Use it for Marketing your Business?
• 6 Social Media Networks to Watch in 2012 – Plus Infographics
• Social Media Sharing Trends in 2011- Infographic
• 7 Top Trends in Social Media