Pinterest keeps twisting from being a pure social network toward an eCommerce site with two new product showcase tools, which are designed to nudge user purchases based on their behaviors on the site.

The first is a new "Picked for You" Pin collection, which will appear at the top of your home feed.

According to Pinterest:

As you shop, you will see a new personalized shopping hub in your home feed based on your interests and the brands that you engage with most."

The prompt will remind you of the products which have engaged your interest on the platform, which may subsequently inspire other buys. It's somewhat akin to Amazon's past purchases recommendation system.

Pinterest is also adding an updated shopping section below Pins from certain businesses, which will showcase expanded brand catalogs based on the items you’ve shown an interest in.
The new, expanded listings will provide new opportunities for brands to showcase more of their products to interested Pinners. During the initial roll-out, Pinterest will add these expanded listings on Pins from brands like Target, Birdies Slippers, Joybird, The Tie Bar, and Parachute.

As noted, Pinterest has been gradually moving from its social media roots more towards eCommerce and product listings. As part of its broader pitch ahead of its IPO, Pinterest said it wants people to think of it as a "place for inspiration" rather than as a social network - and as such, Pinterest's updates and improvements have been more focused on connecting people to products, as opposed to other people.

Tools such as Pinterest Lens, 'Shop the Look,' and others further this capability, and those are clearly paying off. A study by Neustar, released recently, found that retail brands saw a 2x higher return on ad spend on Pinterest than on other social nets and 1.3x higher return than from traditional search. That's in addition to previous metrics which showed that Pinterest is far better at driving purchase intent compared to other social platforms.

Of course, with Pins, there's a ton of potential for retailers-and these new tools will only build on that. And as the platform pushes towards 300 million active users, it's a great one to consider as part of your digital strategic planning.