Although women make up the majority of Pinterest users – with estimates varying from 60% to 90% of the user base – it turns out that men report being more than twice as likely as women to have purchased a product or service after discovering it on the social network, per results of a Compete survey released in June 2012. 37% of male users responding to the survey said they have purchased a product or service after discovering it on Pinterest, compared to 17% of female users. Overall, one-quarter of the respondents had done so.
By comparison, a Reuters and Ipsos poll also released in June revealed that 1 in 5 American Facebook users say they have ever bought a product or service due to advertising or comments they saw on Facebook.
Both these results differ from recent SteelHouse survey data, which found that 59% of Pinterest users have purchased an item they saw on the site, compared to 33% of Facebook users who have bought an item they saw on their news feed or a friend’s wall.
Food Content Gets Most Interest
The Compete survey also looks at the types of items that users interact with on Pinterest. Food (57%) topped the list, ahead of home (40%), arts and crafts (34%), and style/fashion (30%). About one-quarter interact with products, vacation/temporary, and humor items, while content related to children (14%) is less popular.
Pinterest Cannibalizes Other SocNet Activity
The Compete blog post suggests that marketers will need to adapt their digital strategies, as 39% of the survey respondents report changing their social networking behavior due to Pinterest. Roughly one-quarter say they use other social media sites less, with the proportion highest (29%) for respondents in the $60-100k income level. Overall, 15% of Pinterest users say they don’t use any other sites, with those making under $30k (23%) the most likely to only be using Pinterest.
These results need to be weighed against PriceGrabber survey results from April, which indicated that among Pinterest members who also have a Facebook and/or Twitter account, 77% said they do not login to Pinterest more than Facebook and/or Twitter.
About the Data: The Compete data is based on research from Compete’s Online Shopper Intelligence Survey, with close to 500 respondents.
