How to Use Pinterest to Find Merchandising Ideas & Top Trends
Pinterest is not only a great marketing tool and a place we build our emotional wishlist from, gathering images of items for our home, garden, kids, weddings and ourselves; but it`s also one of the best places to find merchandising and design inspiration and top trends (or Pinspiration!).
This article will review:
- How to search on Pinterest
- Dissecting a Pinterest search
- Top keywords and categories to search for
- How to find top trends and consumer demands
How to search on Pinterest:
One way to search on Pinterest is by entering a keyword, phrase or hashtag in the search box located at the top left section of the website. This will provide more relevant results when looking for something specific. You can also use this area to search for broad words like display or retail, especially if you`re in the mood to go through lots of pins and brainstorm ideas that you can implement into your own business. Here`s an example of searching for "retail display".
You can also search by category, which is the button just to the right of the search bar. This will display categories, which can be a great way to find pictures and videos that are popular or fall within specific themes.
By selecting that same button, you`ll also find pins that have been added to boards that are the same category you are searching for. Example: If you click on ‘Design` you`ll see pins from users who have added those pins onto a board with the category ‘Design`. Results will be from all Pinterest users, whether you follow them or not.
Dissecting a Pinterest search:
From this graphic, you can see the keyword used is "retail merchandising for jewelers".
In the red circle you`ll find All Pins, Your Pins, Pinners and Boards. You can select each section and search by individual pins, boards or user. The easiest way to search, and the way to find the most content is by searching All Pins, however I strongly suggest clicking on Boards and Pinners too as you might find some additional ideas.
When trying to find new merchandising and display ideas, you`ll want to search all pins (which Pinterest defaults to), but you can also just search your pins, which can be helpful if you`re trying to find a specific pin that you added to a board, quickly.
Note: When searching Pinners, you`ll only find users who have the exact keywords you`re searching for in their username. Example: At the time of writing this article there weren`t any pinners that show up for "retail merchandising for jewelers" because no one has "retail merchandising for jewelers" within their username.
Top keywords to search for, using the search bar, to find merchandising ideas:
- Retail
- Display
- Merchandising
- Retail Merchandising
- Jeweler Merchandising
- Window Displays
- In-store displays
- Storefronts
- Retail Fixtures
- {product/category} display or merchandising – example: rings display, jeweler retail display, watch merchandising, etc.
Top categories to search from the section to the right of the search bar for jewelers:
- Celebrities
- Design
- DIY and Crafts
- Illustrations & Posters (can help find signage inspiration)
- Weddings
- Women`s Fashion
Pinterest Tip
When adding a new board to your own profile, make sure you always select a category for the board. This will help your pins get seen if someone is searching through that specific category on Pinterest.
I strongly suggest adding your own display and merchandising pictures to become a design inspiration for others and this will help gain additional exposure for your business. If you do this and you own a brick-and-mortar store, add a map to the board you`re pinning to (within settings section of the board) and ‘Add a place` to the pin, which will be the city or town of your store.
Finding Top Trends on Pinterest
Outside of searching within the Popular category or by finding pins that have thousands of repins, there`s another way to find top trends and the product demands of consumers. Go to www.pinterest.com/source/anywebsite.com and put in your competitor`s website, a big-box website, a major magazine`s website, etc., to see what has been pinned from that website. So for example, you can go to https://www.pinterest.com/source/www.alexandani.com/ to see who has pinned what from https://www.alexandani.com/. You`ll notice certain products have been pinned several times, showing that those pins are more popular amongst Pinterest users. The people who have pinned these items could also be great people for you to Follow and connect with on Pinterest, especially if you sell Alex and Ani in-store or online.
I once spoke to a home décor retailer in Dallas Texas who did this exercise but used a couple of his competitor`s websites, and found that a lot of people were pinning cowhide lamp shades. Seeing that type of items was popular on Pinterest, he found a vendor and starting carrying the line. It became one of his top selling lines in just a few weeks!
When looking for new merchandising ideas, fresh ways to display products and stand out from the competition, or to find consumer demands; turn to Pinterest to find inspiration and trends.
Crystal Vilkaitis is the Resident Social Media Expert at RDI Diamonds and is the owner of Crystal Media; a company dedicated to helping retailers integrate proven social media, mobile and email marketing strategies into their businesses. Crystal started Social Edge, an online membership group exclusive to retailers looking to gain an edge over competition using social media, who need direct access to what`s important and relevant when it comes to marketing their store and products online. For more information visit http://socialedge.co.
RDI Diamonds pays for 25% of your yearly membership to Social Edge, just use the coupon code RDIDIAMONDS to save.
