Zappos Says Pinterest Doesn't Deliver Sales
Despite being the latest social media darling, there has long been a suspicion that Pinterest isn't so hot at making users money. Research published earlier this year revealed that many Pinterest users are not moved to buy the things they see and share on the site, with the study revealing that just 13% of users ever bought anything via the site.
So the news from Zappos Labs, who are the research arm of the Zappos site, that they too are not seeing commercial returns from Pinterest should worry the site owners.
Will Young, director of Zappos Labs, told Bloomberg that Pinterest users are far more likely to share a purchase than Twitter or Facebook users—but that shared items generate far less revenue than Twitter or Facebook.
Pinterest, as so many other social networks, dearly hope that companies can see commercial returns from the site, so that they can then monetize the large traffic they currently receive.
Young however has said that whilst Zappos customers are 13 times more likely to share a purchase with friends on Pinterest than they are via Twitter, that Twitter sharing will generate them much more revenue.
He explained that a shared purchase on Twitter generates an average order of $33.66. That compares to $2.08 an order for a Facebook share, and a measly 75 cents per order for Pinterest.
All of which is great if you're Twitter, but not at all good for Pinterest. They've recently raised an extra $100 million in funding, which values the company at a cool $1.5 billion.
A big foundation for that high valuation is that the site can become a bedrock of social commerce. After all, a central premise of the site is that people share great pictures of things they've either bought or want to buy. If that isn't turned into hard cash then the site has worries.
Of course, it's not great news for Facebook either, but since their IPO their commercial difficulties are well known.
Have you managed to generate income from Pinterest? How does it compare with other social networks?
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