Pinterest doubles down on social commerce

There are large indicators that there is major demand for more sophisticated social commerce in the US marketplace already. An obvious example of this is Instagram, which has over one billion users and is now, arguably, one of the world’s largest social shopping platforms. Similarly to Pinduoduo, Instagram has fostered a browsing-based feed from fr... See more

While social media has created opportunities for purchase inspiration similar to a beautifully-merchandised department store window, we’re still in the early days of Instagram Shops. Replicating discovery in the way that people organically find things in-store has so far proved elusive, resulting in fewer opportunities to grow transaction size.

Influencers are the future of discovery-driven, brand-centric commerce. This means that they’re juxtaposed to Amazon and search-driven, brand-agnostic commerce. Picks and shovels like Shopify and Stripe enable influencer commerce.

Instagram remains the most influential and vibrant catalog of visual culture on the planet. Unless it somehow blows the opportunity, it should be able to use that to drive discovery and commerce business over the long run.