For a few years, Pinterest has been working to grow from a social sharing platform into a tool that truly drives online transactions. The company has made several changes to its platform in an effort to achieve this–such as developing its ads API capabilities for promoted pins and adding a “buy” button.More recently, Pinterest has been working to drive online purchases by making an even bigger change. The platform is adapting its content and capabilities to reach beyond its traditionally female user-base and appeal to men, whose online behaviors may be more conducive to Pinterest’s goal of playing a larger role in eCommerce.As Edison Research’s Social Habit notes, “women use Pinterest in a far more aspirational and motivational way than men…to get ideas…and men are more likely to pin items they’d like to buy.”
Because men tend to usePinterest in a more utilitarian way than women, Pinterest’s efforts to gain more male users have been largely focused on search. These changes appear to be working; improved SEO, a gender-sensitive search feature, and a visual search function are leading to an increase in Pinterest’s male user-base. 40% of new users are male, and the number of men actively searching on Pinterest has increased by 55% year-over-year. Pinterest’s evolution shows that shifting tactics to match your target’s shopping habits may not be enough to achieve your goals; sometimes, as objectives change, you have to consider a new target segment with shopping behaviors that are more aligned to those new objectives.
Image Source: Pinterest
