Pinterest have announced that they are acquiring the team behind an influencer-driven shopping app called Tote. The announcement suggests that the social network are serious about rethinking how they monetise the wealth of creative content shared across the platform.
The new hires created the Tote app which works by highlighting and suggesting products shared by fashion influencers and friends - so it’s clear that the team will be playing an integral role in developing monetisation strategy. Indeed, the team will be joining Pinterest’s growth and monetisation team. As a result of the acqui-hire, Tote itself will be shut down on the 15th June.
The reason for the hire
This isn’t the only significant hire that Pinterest have made recently, having also acquired the people behind Fleksy, a custom keyboard app. These hires are going to play a critical role in attracting users to the network, something that has become increasingly important in recent years. Directing influencers to the service will prove pivotal for the network, as will streamlining the full user experience; from discovery to engagement and, most importantly, conversion.#
In order to improve that customer revolution calls for increased engagement at every stage along the way. As a social network, Pinterest is involved throughout every point in the consumer experience, and so the future could hold great potential for them, but only with a willingness to invest. Therefore new talent that can crack each of these areas takes top priority.
It seems the network are serious about developing their capabilities and becoming a real contender in the social media marketplace. It’s now evident that they are more than willing to invest money into making new hires and become a real player in social e-commerce.
The Tote team’s potential influence
As the Tote team have been focusing on encouraging purchases through the influencer model and using trendsetters as a key part in their business strategy, it is clear their influence could be nothing short of inspirational for the network. Pinterest need to harness what their community have given them in order to successfully monetise their network with longterm projected growth in mind, and those guys could help them achieve that.
