EcommerceBytes-NewsFlash, Number 3023 - March 18, 2013 
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Pinterest New Web Analytics Sticks to the Basics
By David A. Utter
The joys of pinning content on Pinterest appealed to many people. The site has maintained a high rate of traffic, enough to rate in Alexa 14th in the U.S. and 35th globally.
While many users are content to pin and share what interests them enough to point a camera at it and snap away, there are others, likely ecommerce pros among them, who wish to see and know more about the visitors arriving at their pins. How many have viewed a given pin over a period of time? Where are they coming from to visit the pin?
It's with this in mind that Pinterest introduced Web Analytics for their users. The Pinterest for Business side of the company showed the basics of the service - who's pinning from a site, who's visiting those pins, and who's clicking through those pins to the content beyond the image.
Analytics in general is simply the mechanism offered by many services to analyze one's website data. Such packages generally have reporting features included, to permit the site's owner to view the site's measurable metrics in an understandable way.
Once a Pinterest user has verified their site and has switched to Pinterest's new look, the Analytics feature becomes available. Site users will be able to see what Pinterest described as "a selection of your most repinned, most clicked, and most recent pins so you have a better idea of what's popular."
Pinterest seems to be on the cusp of driving ecommerce, where someone viewing a pin is so compelled by the content that they click through to an online seller. Marketing Land found an interesting statistic from a Bizrate survey (Q3 2012): 70 percent of "pinners" use what they see in Pinterest to help make purchasing decisions.
The visual presentation of Pinterest has been replicated on a number of sites. As consumers become used to seeing, and expecting to see, content presented in a visual way, we may be seeing a shift in ecommerce pros designing their websites to meet this expectation.
About the author:
David A. Utter is a freelance writer based in Lexington, KY. He has covered technology topics from search to security to online business and has been quoted in places like ZDNet and BusinessWeek. He considers his appearance on NPR's "All Things Considered" with long-time host Robert Siegel a delightful highlight. Send your tips to media@davidautter.com and find him on Twitter @davidautter and on LinkedIn.
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