How good are Pinterest and other social shopping sites at driving traffic and product sales?

While social shopping sites have taken off in a major way this year, the question for internet marketers involved with ecommerce sites has been how well those passive browsers convert to paying customers. Well, now we have some answers.

According to a Bizrate Insights report cited by eMarketer, an astounding 32% of North American online buyers have bought a product as a direct result of seeing an image on a sharing site like Pinterest.

A large slice of those users (26%) clicked on product images that were linked directly to the retailer’s website from where they made their purchase. This reinforces the value of a good image linking strategy for Pinterest.

Even when unable to easily click through to the retailer site, a determined 6% took the trouble to search for the product on another site to make a purchase.

Pinterest enjoys a high level of trust among users. A survey earlier this conducted by the BlogHer network reported that 81% of female users trusted the information and advice they found on the network, while 47% said a recommendation from a Pinterest user had influenced their decision to buy.

Resources & Next Steps

Social Networks Similar to Pinterest
Juxtapost Pretty close to Pinterest in both design and content.

Fancy A little more gadget and geek focused.

Discoverdd Heavily into fashion, style and interior design.

Polyvore Almost exclusively fashion, clothing and jewelry – also the most overtly commercial network in its approach.

Marketing Guides
Pinteresting Secrets eBook Viral marketing expert Colby Almond explains how to brand yourself on the site and create content that drives traffic back to your site.

How to cash in on Google+ and Pinterest Solid guide to the two newest and most important social networks.

Your Complete Pinterest Start-Up Guide Good, inexpensive guide to getting started with Pinterest marketing.