VTEX and Pinterest’s partnership is all about marrying large brands with regional customers

VTEX, a UK-based enterprise digital commerce platform, announced its partnership with Pinterest, an image-sharing and social media platform, on 29th May 2024. This collaboration aims to help consumer brands broaden its social commerce footprint and connect with more customers.

The partnership enables VTEX customers to integrate its product catalogues, create Pins, and run efficient shopping campaigns on Pinterest.

It will translate the inspiration found on Pinterest into authentic consumer connections for some of the world’s most popular brands, enhancing its commerce experience. Early testers of this partnership include VTEX customers such as Whirlpool, Blaisten, and Easy.

Key features of the collaboration include:

• Product catalog upload: Sync your product catalogue with your Pinterest business account to automatically create product Pins, making your products visible to all Pinners (Pinterest users)

• Conversion Tracking: Track conversions using the frontend JavaScript and backend API tracking. API for Conversions installation outside of this app can take 2-4 weeks. With this app, it will be implemented in ~30 minutes.

Prakash Gurumoorthy, general manager, EMEA and APAC, VTEX, shares that the partnership with Pinterest allows VTEX's existing brands to tap into the social platform's high-intent audience, making its catalogue available not just for engagement but also for purchase. Pinterest has traditionally worked with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and e-commerce platforms.

“Pinterest’s vision is to make any image on the platform shoppable, while VTEX aims to provide its brands with a different channel for discovery to purchase, making them shoppable on a platform like Pinterest. We are now allowing enterprise brands to achieve the same agility as small businesses by taking their catalogues, putting them on the platform, and converting them. This increases discovery, engagement, and omnichannel behaviour, creating new ways to sell,” he says.

The company, which counts Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Electrolux among its clients, also offers a feature called Live Shopping. In Live Shopping, any brand can partner with VTEX to launch a new product, possibly with an influencer or celebrity. This product is integrated into its core e-commerce platform, enabling consumers to engage directly.

Consumer screen time on smartphones, particularly on social media, is increasing. According to Pinterest's analysis for Q1 2024, the platform boasts over 51.8 crore monthly active users who save, plan, and shop for products they like.

Gurumoorthy explains that today’s consumers seek new channels for buying and selling beyond traditional methods. They also desire more choices, flexibility in shipping, efficient order management, and fulfilment.

He illustrates this with the example of WhatsApp shopping, where consumers can browse a brand’s catalogue, order online, and provide feedback directly through WhatsApp. He considers this a perfect use case for achieving traceability in social media.

“With this collaboration, brands now have an engagement ring, allowing them to interact more with their customers. Ultimately, a brand needs to attract and engage new customers to convert them. For existing customers, while attraction may not be necessary, interaction and engagement are crucial for retention. These types of collaborations offer brands greater flexibility, enabling them to be more agile and to experiment and innovate,” he states.

Gurumoorthy also reveals that several collaborations are lined up for the company in the second half of 2024. His advice to brands considering partnering with VTEX is not to view the company solely as a standalone e-commerce firm.

He emphasises that VTEX is a 360-degree digital commerce company, solely focused on digital commerce. He assures brands that their digital commerce operations will be expertly managed.

“I assure brands that they need not look to any other provider because we will continue innovating by adding new sales channels, creating the VTEX ad network, enhancing social commerce, implementing live shopping, personal shopper features, and developing sales apps for stores,” he says.