Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores) has jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon. The company has become a fan of the many ways that customers are sharing their home goods’ products, but also how the Pinterest referrals are leading to sales.
Pinterest Becomes Sales Driver for Major Home Goods Store - Mashable Business:
Pinterest isn’t just driving record levels of traffic to the websites of retailers and publishers — it’s also driving sales, some early data indicates.
Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores), the second largest home goods retailer by revenue, has found that Pinterest referrals are more likely to make a purchase and spend more on average than visitors from other social channels.
Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah says that shoppers referred by Pinterest are more 10% more likely to make a purchase than visitors who arrive from other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. They’ll also spend 10% more on average.
The statistics are in some respects even more impressive when non-social channels are added in. On average, Pinterest referrals spend 70% more than visitors referred from non-social channels, including search. They are not, however, as likely to make a purchase as those referred by other channels.
Those statistics are averaged among Wayfair’s three home goods websites: wayfair.com, allmodern.com andjossandmain.com, the latter of which is a daily deals site. Collectively, the three sites brought in $500 million in revenue last year. (Williams-Sonoma, the number one player in the category, posted revenues of $3.7 billion for fiscal 2011.)
Shah says Wayfair only began “getting active” on Pinterest at the beginning of the year, setting up its own Pinterest page with a mix of nearly 1,500 inspirational and product images. The company also hosted a“Pinterest challenge” in February, encouraging users to create pinboards with 15 to 20 Wayfair products for a chance at one of five $50 gift cards.
When asked why he thinks Pinterest has proven a better sales channel than other social networks, Shah noted that Pinterest encourages people to collect images that inspire them, and that includes products. “Visual imagery drives inspiration, it’s what makes you want to buy it,” Shah said. “We sell things [on our sites] in the same way.”
Wayfair’s numbers are certainly promising for both Pinterest and for other retailers, particularly in the apparel and home goods categories. Should conversions and average order rates continue to prove stronger than other social channels, the website will no doubt witness a sharp uptick in interest and investment from brands.
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