The third most popular social network, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined. With over 25 million users, the social network is currently experiencing a “whopping 400% month-over-month growth.”
Considering Pinterest’s phenomenal rise to the top of the social tier, visual emulations were inevitable. We’ve witnessed countless variations of the image-focused, block design trending across the web. Yet not many have taken this Pinterest inspiration as far as Walmart, Sears and Kmart. We delve deeper into how they recreated this successful, visual shopping experience – in very different ways on their own sites – below.
Walmart
Along with maintaining a profile on Pinterest, the retail corporation took the visual influence one step further with the “Trending Now” section of Walmart.com. They encourage users to “Get Inspired,” and offer trend filters by way of store department sections. They also include top searched for terms of the day.
Each image includes a reason for why it’s trending. For instance, some of the recent ones are labeled: “New Pin,” “Just Reviewed,” and “Best Seller.” This is an excellent way to highlight products as well as add value for customers.
Integrating social networks, Walmart provides the option to tweet, pin or “like” the item in the picture along with looking at the product page on-site. So although it does look a lot like Pinterest at first, it incorporates Facebook and Twitter elements too. Walmart demonstrates an effective way to improve your site for the increasing social and visual elements online.
Sears & Kmart
The two retailers teamed up – along with Land’s End and My Gofer – for “Shop Your Way,” a digital-focused loyalty program. Hosted on its own site – separate from the retailers – Shop Your Way is essentially an ecommerce-focused version of Pinterest. The overarching options are broken down into sections such as departments, brands, stores, topics, etc. It gets even more specific within those categories, as shown by the Tools page. 
Users can follow certain brands or departments – or even products. Then, they can tag items they’d like to save/view later and create wish lists. It’s considered a loyalty program because customers earn points for shopping on the site. There’s also a big mobile component, recognizing the increase in shopping on mobile devices.
Walmart’s “Trending Now” section places a large emphasis on their social presence. Sears and Kmart’s “Shop Your Way” isn’t as much of a push toward other social networks as a personalized on-site Pinterest. Both demonstrate digital innovation, and it will be interesting to watch how customers adapt to, and other brands expand on, these ideas – making social media profitable.
Have any questions about social media optimization? Contact ZOG Digital today for an SMO audit.