Pinterest helps brands better integrate online and offline worlds with TopShop partnership
Pinterest has worked with TopShop to help it better integrate the online and offline customer experience as it deepens its relationship with brands and gives them more reasons to use the site.
The move comes after Pinterest opened up its platform to developers in May. That meant any business – from brands to third-party developer and ad tech companies – could use Pinterest data to come up with ways to engage with their customers.
For most brands that has meant integrating a ‘Pin It’ button. However TopShop has taken this one step further with its in-house developers coming up with a “Pinterest Palette”.
The tool enables Pinterest to sign into the site on TopShop.com and see their boards – specific themes that they pin items to within Pinterst such as weddings or autumn wardrobes. TopShop will then create a “colour palette” based on the items pinned.
The aim for TopShop is to help customers make decisions on their personal style. The website will suggest ranges of clothes based on the colours people prefer.
To tie in with London Fashion Week, for five days its flagship Oxford Street shop will be zoned by colour. Shoppers will also be able to make appointments with personal stylists at the store to discuss the results of the colour palette and pick out styles that fit.
Adele Cooper, Pinterest’s UK country manager, told Marketing Week this is the best example yet of a brand taking Pinterest data and using it to create a tool that is useful to customers but could also help drive sales.
“Brands are looking to use Pinterest to better integrate the online and offline world. They have made a heavy investment in stores and online sales are growing tremendously. What they want to know is how to get those two working together in a way that works for the consumer,” she explained.
Cooper admitted that Pinterest has been reaching out to brands early in its life cycle but said this is in part because branded content makes up so much of the content on Pinterest – around two-thirds. She highlights its work in sharing data, insights and trends as well as on-marketing but says the developer platform offers even further opportunities.
“It is key for people to have a good experience [on Pinterest] so we have worked with brands for a while. The developer platform is particularly interesting because brands can build innovative experiences on their own websites,” she said.
TopShop’s approach works, she said, because it has recognised that colour is a fundamental part of people’s style but that often people pin without thinking about trends in what they are sharing.
“This brings data to life. People pin freely sometimes for inspiration or if they’re planning a wardrobe. This picks out the trends,” she explained.
Pinterest is keen to engage with brands but there is growing competition in the social media space from the obvious players such as Facebook and Twitter as well as smaller sites such as Snapchat. To succeed Pinterest will have to succinctly set out what makes it different.
Cooper thinks she has the answer.
“When people are using Pinterest they are using it to plan personal projects, they are posting content they know will not be seen by friends, they are curating their public identity and they are using it to discover and save content.
“For brands its an action list, a wish list, of what they hope to buy in the future.”
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