The Pinterest app has previously offered the Try On feature with beauty products. This latest expansion indicates a growing ambition in the virtual shopping segment. Users can scan their surroundings for the furniture and get results from retailers like Crate & Barrel, Walmart, West Elm, and Wayfair. Retailers like Ikea have previously tried out AR shopping with relative success. So Pinterest isn’t the first to bring this idea to fruition.
The Try On for Home Decor feature is only available in the U.S. at the moment
“Since the pandemic began, we’re seeing more digitally savvy shoppers than ever before, as millions of people now expect virtual and mobile options to try before they buy, see personalized recommendations, and gather information as part of their decision making process,” SVP of Engineering at Pinterest, Jeremy King said in a blog post. “These behaviors are happening across Pinterest every day, which is why we’re continuing to advance technologies like AR Try On and make Pinterest a full funnel shopping destination that takes people from inspiration to purchase anywhere in the app.” Pinterest will also start recommending new items based on your Pins and older searches. Thanks to retailer partnerships, Pinterest has around 80,000 shoppable pins for home decor with Try On enabled. Meanwhile, there are over 14,000 shoppable pins for beauty products. Pinterest said the feature is only available in the U.S. No specific timeline was provided for its global availability. As Engadget points out, these new AR features could also be part of a plan to get into the metaverse. “The good news is all this technology translates exactly into the metaverse. I think it’s on its way, but there’s not a lot of people shopping for physical objects yet in the metaverse,” King said. The Pinterest mobile app was updated last year to include TikTok-style vertically scrollable content or Idea Pins. The company also launched its “first-ever in-product monetization program for creators” called Creators Rewards.
