Pinterest is making itself even more relevant to those who want to bridge online to offline when it comes to both visual inspiration and shopping. Its visual search through the power of its Lens feature has been pretty useful if you didn’t know what words to use when you’re searching for something that’s right in front of you (and we mean literally, not philosophically). Now they’re updating their Lens feature and it can now identify “more than 2.5 billion objects across home and fashion Pins”.
One of the new things Lens can do is that you can save photos from it, turn them into a Pin and then save them on your board for later use. This means you can combine adding pins from real life and from the Pinterest network into a board, whether you’re saving ideas for room redecoration or thinking of new clothes and accessories you want to buy later. Lens’ed photos will also still affect your ongoing recommendations within the app.
Pinterest also now has Product Pins which has the product price and a direct link to the retailer’s site for items that have been tagged by brands, alongside the suggested similar ideas that you can try out or even buy. The visual signals can power search, recommendations, and results across Pinterest. And now, brands are also experimenting with Pincodes or Pinterest visual search-enabled QR codes so you will be able to connect offline and online retail experiences.
Some of the brands that are using Pincodes include IKEA Germany who use it for their mailing list, Albertsons who use it on the end caps of grocery stores for quick and easy recipes, The Conran Shop which used it in their window displays, and The Home Depot who used pincodes to offer customer inspiration when it comes to home renovations and DIY projects.
Expect Pinterest to leverage their AI and their visual signals to create more online to offline (and vice versa) experiences for its customers.
