This week the web’s two largest ecommerce marketplaces, Amazon and eBay, began leveraging the power of Pinterest to increase traffic, drive sales and reach new customers.

Both Amazon and eBay have added the Pinterest “Pin It” button on every product page within their U.S. sites.

The Pin It button allows eBay and Amazon buyers or visitors to easily post products they love over on Pinterest.

In doing so, they are free providing word-of-mouth marketing on Pinterest.  A site that lends itself perfectly to ecommerce.

eBay and Amazon are following Etsy’s lead in successfully integrating the Pin It button into their product pages. The strategy to get Etsy’s products in front of Pinterest’s 12 million + unique visitors is working…

According to social media statistics tool Zoomsphere, Etsy and Google now alternate as the #1 and #2 sources of pinned content on Pinterest.

However, even without a resident Pin It button, Amazon currently holds the #3 spot as a content source for Pinterest.

With the addition of the Pin It button, it may not be long before Amazon or eBay products are vying for the top spot.

Benefits of the Amazon/eBay/Pinterest Integration

With more than 12 million unique monthly visitors to Pinterest.com, there will be no shortage of Pinterest users excited about pinning your products.

While Pinterest users can pin directly from their browser bar, they have to have the Pin It button installed in order to do that.

Easy access and a visual reminder to “Pin It” on Amazon and eBay’s pages, will only serve to increase the number of products pinned from these two sites.

That means more visibility for your eBay and Amazon products.

Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter?

While most people are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest has seen a meteoric rise as a legitimate player in the social commerce space.

(You can learn more about how to market your online business with Pinterest by reading my recent blog posts here and here.)

A big advantage to  the integration of the Pin It button on both these sites is the compatibility factor between Pinterest and ecommerce.

• Pinterest is a platform for sharing visual imagery
• Ecommerce sales in large part because of visual product imagery

And while the Facebook and Twitter community value interpersonal interactions over postings of product images… 

The Pinterest community thrives on the discovery of the cool products, trends, useful tools, good design, creativity, form, function and color!

In fact Pinterest is fast becoming a destination site for people to discover great gift ideas or look for product recommendations. Earning it a reputation as a top-notch curated content and product catalog.

Not only that, Pinterest users are engaged and take action!

Pinterest now ranks #2 in number of minutes spent on the site, coming in right behind Facebook. Twitter clocks in at #4.

Traffic referral to external sites: For the first time in February 2012, Pinterest drove more referral to external websites than 6 year old Twitter (And it continues to drive more referral traffic than LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ COMBINED)

Pinterest‘s visual imagery moves people to action.

Whether they’re repinning, recommending, commenting or buying, Pinterest’s users are some of the most active on the web!

Pricegrabber released survey data this week revealing that 21 percent of people who identified themselves as Pinterest users said they had purchased a product after seeing it on Pinterest.

Pinning Strategies for Online Merchants

As an online merchant, you can also use the integrated Pin It button on eBay and Amazon to share your content on Pinterest. Or you can continue to use the browser bar Pin It button as I describe  here.

But there are some key things to rememeber when using Pinterest for marketing:

You have a responsibility to follow Pinterest etiquette when using Pinterest for marketing. You can’t SPAM the Pinterest boards or use an automated Bot to post your listings. The Pinterest community will respond by not repinning or liking your influx of “PSPAM” which defeats your marketing efforts.

Pinterest  is a curated content catalog not a classified ads site. Photos and products should be curated, meaning you should pin the best of your inventory and product photos on Pinterest.

You MUST have a strategy in place to use Pinterest for business marketing.  While buyers will simply pin products they love, a business owner must approach Pinterest strategically. (Both to get ROI on your marketing efforts and the best visibility for your brand.)

In fact, promoting your business on Pinterest incorrectly can actually do more harm to your brand than good.

That’s one of the reasons I put together the only course of its kind. A step-by-step course on Pinterest for Ecommerce. In this 5 video series, I’ll show youhow to strategically use Pinterest to reach new customers, drive more traffic to your products and convert more Pinterest visitors to sales!

Until Tuesday, April 2, you can get Pinterest for Ecommerce at a special introductory price. Click here for details.

Whether you sell on Amazon, eBay from your own website… (or  you’re an author, speaker, blogger or consultant).  If you sell something online, you need a presence on Pinterest!

-Lisa