Pinterest And Instagram Utilize ‘Buy’ Feature As Amazon Utilizes Pinterest Shopping Stream

Pinterest and Instagram are making big changes lately. The popular social media apps are launching “buy buttons” to rival popular e-commerce sites like Amazon.

Pinterest chief executive Ben Silbermann announced the new “buyable Pins” feature on the online scrapbooking site. Major retailers like Macy’s and Nordstrom have already signed up to sell their products on the new platform. According to Silbermann, the “buy” feature is the most requested feature from the millions of users on the social media site. He said that he wants to make Pinterest more than a site that’s filled with beautiful photos and boards dedicated to food, crafts, fashion, and travel.

“Pinterest isn’t about getting your chores done. It is about helping you discover beautiful products that you love.”

As noted on the Pinterest blog, users will know when they come across the “buyable Pins.”

“When you spot a Pin with a blue price, you’ll know that you can buy it right from the app.”

This new feature will also allow users to shop by price or color. It will also offer the ability to purchase items through Apple Pay or a credit card. According to Pinterest, the buyable pins will be made available on Apple phones and gadgets, then on Android phones and gadgets.

Meanwhile, Instagram will also include a “buy” feature that allows retailers to sell products directly from the mobile app. Instagram has also been slowly rolling out advertising as it utilizes the high-quality images that users upload to its platform. Now it’s allowing retailers and advertisers to include a “buy” button to encourage its users to shop at the e-commerce site.

Unlike Pinterest, Instagram’s “buy” feature will not take place on the app. In its recent blog post, Instagram hopes that “people will be able to learn about a product or service and then take action directly from an ad to sign up on a website, buy a product, or download an app.”

Now it looks like Amazon is borrowing a page from both Pinterest and Instagram. The company has launched a new online store take on both social media sites. The new online store called Amazon Stream offers a stream of items that’s similar to Pinterest. The high-quality images appear as rows of squares for its customers to look through.

The tagline for Amazon Stream says, “Beautiful things, updated daily.”

Amazon’s focus for its new online store is fashion and jewelry for men and women. Other items included in the store are home appliances and arts and crafts. Amazon plans to add hundreds of items daily. As of right now, the stream doesn’t allow customers to search for specific items.

The online store also includes a feature called “Your Saves,” which is an alternative to Amazon’s classic wishlist. This allows customers to save their favorite items in a list that they can view later. It also allows them to save the items to their Amazon wishlist. If customers wish to purchase an item from the stream, they can click the “See buying details” button for more information.

Amazon Stream has already been out for the past few months, but it’s just making news now. This online store only works best on mobile phones and tablets. It’s a great alternative if you don’t like shopping on Amazon’s traditional desktop website. You may also like the design of Amazon Stream if you’re a hardcore Pinterest user.

[Image: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for ELLE Magazine]