Pinterest

Visual social media network Instagram is taking a new step toward becoming a platform for commerce.

Instagram has launched a new program called Instagram Partners that is designed to help companies advertise on the social network. Each certified partner must have expertise in at least one of three defined areas: ad tech (buying and selling ads at scale), community management (managing comments and gaining consumer insights), and content marketing (sourcing and delivering content at scale).

Visual search, or the ability to click on an image of a product and obtain information, or even make a purchase, without typing in any words, is growing in popularity.

Retailers including Urban Outfitters are offering variations of visual search functionality, and the failed Amazon Fire smartphone essentially made the world into an Amazon showroom with an advanced virtual search tool. Considering that Pinterest has become one of the leading visually-oriented consumer sites, it’s not surprising the social platform has joined the fray.

Two new offerings from Pinterest make the visually-oriented social media platform even more accessible for e-commerce.

Neiman Marcus is taking the capabilities of its digital lookbooks to a whole new level.

Neiman Marcus has deployed the Zmags Creator rich media marketing platform to design and publish shoppable lookbooks on its e-commerce site. The retailer’s more than 150 annual lookbooks serve as the primary way to highlight designer merchandise on its site.

Two new offerings from Pinterest make the visually-oriented social media platform even more accessible for e-commerce.

First, Pinterest is launching a new feature called Pinterest Shop. Every day, Pinterest will offer what it calls “hand-picked” product selections. The curated assortments will include products from major retailers like Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, as well as from smaller boutique retailers.

Pinterest will roll out Pinterest Shop for desktop and mobile in the next couple of weeks.

Although social commerce is still relatively new, it appears to be quickly gaining acceptance with consumers.

According to a new survey of more than 1,500 U.S. consumers from Citi Retail Services, social commerce, or the concept of using social media to drive sales, is evolving and growing at a faster pace than all other online channels. And shoppers are buying in.

A new e-commerce integration will empower online retailers to sell goods directly through Instagram.

Springbot, an e-commerce marketing platform designed for online stores, has integrated with Instagram to allow the creation of customized shopping pages through a Magento or Shopify merchant’s Instagram profile. Springbot already provides the tracking of revenue attribution for retailers on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube have some new competition as social commerce tools.

Visual commerce provider Curalate is releasing Curalate Reveal, a new solution enabling consumers to discover and shop products by clicking on images in blogs. Thus retailers can create shopping experiences on their own blogs or blogs of key influencers.