The Maze: Pinterest has added a tool that lets US shoppers compare similar products side by side before buying. Someone choosing between two gifts can see prices, stock and reviews together, without opening a separate listing for each one. For retailers whose products show up, that means a shopper can rule an item out before reaching the store’s website. Pinterest is also testing a separate wishlist that can bring shoppers back when a saved item gets cheaper or comes back in stock.
Source: Pinterest Newsroom. Pinterest illustrates a price-drop alert in its separate Wishlist test.
The details
🔍 Three ways to open Compare. On a phone, US shoppers can open it through Pinterest Assistant or a board. The Assistant is the tool shoppers can ask for suggestions; a board is a collection of saved posts, which Pinterest calls Pins. On desktop, the entry point is the Close-up button in the view for an individual Pin. Pinterest shows similar products together, but hasn’t said how it picks the alternatives, where the comparison data comes from, how often it updates or whether sponsored products can appear there.
🔔 A wishlist for shoppers who want to wait. In a limited iOS test in the US and Canada, shoppers using Apple’s mobile app can save a product to a wishlist and may get a notification when its price falls or it returns to stock. The alert gives them a reason to revisit the item. Pinterest hasn’t said how soon notifications go out or when the test might expand.
Our take
Pinterest is making it easier to decide which products deserve a closer look. For a retailer, the immediate job is to make sure the product information a shopper sees on Pinterest matches what they find on the store’s site.
🧾 Check the price and stock for the exact item. Pinterest already asks retailers to keep their shoppable listings current. If you upload a product catalog, its desktop preview shows a listing’s price, stock status and where that data comes from. Start with a few products you plan to promote. Open each store link and check that the price and availability match for the same size or color. That fixes a mismatch you can control. Pinterest hasn’t said whether Compare uses that catalog data or whether updating it changes which products get picked.
📊 Read visits and orders together. If more shoppers narrow their choices on Pinterest, fewer might click through just to look. An alert could also bring a shopper back days after they first saved something. Before shifting ad spend, track US visits from Pinterest alongside orders from those visits. Mark when discounts and restocks happened. The pattern can tell you whether a change in traffic came with a change in sales. It can’t isolate Compare or the wishlist test from holiday demand or a campaign running at the same time.
