Pinterest Is A Search Engine?
Pinterest vs. Google: The Visual Search Revolution
This episode, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, explores how Pinterest is disrupting traditional search engines and transforming product discovery through visual search. Our retail experts analyze surprising data and debate what it means for brands' marketing strategies.
Key Moments:
0:03 - Breaking news: Adobe research reveals Pinterest emerging as a search engine competitor
0:14 - Surprising statistic: 39% of US consumers have used Pinterest as a search engine
0:23 - Gen Z leading the trend at 47%, with decreasing adoption across older generations
0:36 - Eye-opening claim: 36% of respondents start searches on Pinterest instead of Google
0:48 - Perception advantage: 60% say Pinterest results feel more tailored than Google results
1:10 - Anne Mezzenga discusses how this trend connects to Meta's recent search announcements with ChatGPT
1:34 - Critical insight: Image-based search is driving this shift, especially among younger demographics
1:47 - Industry validation: Google's own data shows 20% of image searches are commerce-related
2:02 - Real-world confirmation: Designers and stylists exclusively using Pinterest for professional searches
2:25 - Historical context: How search is evolving from text-based to visual discovery
3:19 - Ben Millers confirms search fragmentation is a major retail trend affecting marketing investments
4:05 - Research critique: Ben challenges Adobe's methodology and questions the "36%" headline claim
4:46 - Methodological issues: Survey of just 800 people on a single day with unclear geographic representation
5:14 - Distinction between general search and commerce intent: "I'm not going to Pinterest to find out who was president in 1962"
6:28 - The commerce challenge: Getting searches to convert to purchases remains a critical hurdle
7:37 - Anne clarifies: Pinterest's value is specifically for purchase intent and product discovery
8:03 - Integration point: Pinterest results appearing in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini searches
8:47 - Market reality check: Google still dominates overall search, but commerce search is fragmenting
9:35 - Future marketing challenge: How to influence search when traditional paid placements aren't available
10:19 - Opportunity assessment: Commerce search is currently "fair game" for platforms to redefine
The episode highlights how visual search is fundamentally changing product discovery and creating new opportunities for retailers who understand these emerging consumer behaviors.
Catch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/BrQ0kfPY4LA
#pinterest #visualsearch #ai #google #retailtech #retailnews #retailstrategy ##retailtrends
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcript
Adobe says that Pinterest is emerging as a search engine.
Speaker A:According to ChainStorage, new Adobe Express data reveals consumers are finding new uses for Pinterest.
Speaker A:About 2 in 5 U.S.
Speaker A:consumers, or 39% to be exact, recently surveyed by Adobe Express have used Pinterest as a search engine.
Speaker A:Survey data reveals that Gen Z respondents in particular are driving this trend at 47%, followed by millennials at 39%, Gen X at 37% and baby boomers at 25% of respondents.
Speaker A:More than one third of respondents also 36% said they start searches on Pinterest instead of Google, with Gen Z again being the Most likely at 39%.
Speaker A:Fascinating.
Speaker A:And 6 in 10 respondents said Pinterest search results feel more tailored to them than Google results, including 71% of Gen Z respondents.
Speaker A:And we had cheap, we had ChatGPT last week and now Pinterest.
Speaker A:Should Google be even more scared this week?
Speaker A:I mean this is some really interesting data.
Speaker A:What's your read on this headline?
Speaker B:Yeah, and let's not forget that Meta announced their, you know, search competitor with Chat GPT this last week too.
Speaker B:So yes, I would say this is something that everyone needs, every platform right now needs to be thinking about the role that they play in new search behaviors.
Speaker B:And I think Pinterest has an especially important role to play because I think that what we're finding especially with younger, the younger demographic is, was clear in some of the stats that you just gave.
Speaker B:Chris.
Speaker B:Image based search is growing in popularity.
Speaker B:This is how people are, they're discovering products.
Speaker B:And now we heard Sean Scott from Google again at, at Shop Talk just a few weeks ago said that 20% of image based search searches are are commerce related so they result in a commerce based purchase.
Speaker B:And I think that Pinterest is playing a really important role here.
Speaker B:I contacted two people who are in their designers and stylists and they are using Pinterest all the time exclusively for search.
Speaker B:I don't personally with my own search behavior but they said they said similar things to what you are calling out here.
Speaker B:It's more tailored to them.
Speaker B:It gives them visual representation of the things that they're searching which again I think is so contrary to how we've all searched in the past.
Speaker B:It's always been text based search and now that we have tools like Lens like you know, search image based search finders on sites like Wayfair or on Pinterest, you're able to search in this new way.
Speaker B:And for a lot of people it's merging those worlds of discovery and search search together and, and giving you a new way to do that.
Speaker B:So I, I think that this is actually bigger news and, and probably one of the, the bigger moves from Pinterest.
Speaker B:I know they've been trying to do this for a long time, but I think that it's going to be a big move for them as they kind of stake their claim as being the go to for visual based search when you're looking to find a product or find similar products to something that you see out in the world.
Speaker A:Ben, what, what did you agree with?
Speaker A:What do you disagree with?
Speaker A:What would you add to what Ben said or to what and just said?
Speaker C:So on substance, I, I, I completely agree and I completely, I, I think, you know, the fragmentation of search is one of the big trends that retails and brands need to be paying attention to right now.
Speaker C:It was one of our big trends in the shop retail zeitgeist that I prepared for our Vegas show back in March and, and I agreed that Pinterest are doing some really good work in this space.
Speaker C:I think there's been some more recent announcements just this week about some of the AI tools that they're building in.
Speaker C:So really great.
Speaker C:And this is something that's got real world implications of understanding how to, and where to influence shoppers and how to help them discover products is huge and it leads to where you invest your marketing dollars.
Speaker C:So I think it's a big trend they want to understand.
Speaker C:But I'm going to have to go on a rant.
Speaker C:Can I, can I have a rant?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker C:Because I've got to give, I want to give a slap on the wrists for Adobe Express, their PR team on this, the journalists who've done it.
Speaker C:This is not good research.
Speaker C:This is not so, I mean whenever you have did research, he's got to pass the sniff test really quickly.
Speaker C:And the headline is 36% of consumers start their search on Pinterest instead of Google.
Speaker C:That's just not right.
Speaker C:Yeah, come on, come on.
Speaker C:You just stand up in your office, get 10 people.
Speaker C:Where do you start your search?
Speaker C:Put your hands up.
Speaker C:If it's Google or Pinterest, you can disprove that one.
Speaker C:So the analyst, I have dug into it.
Speaker C:This is a survey based on just 800 people on one day in March.
Speaker C:That's not enough to draw conclusions on.
Speaker C:There's no details on geographic representation.
Speaker C:And then the numbers that they quote are actually only for people who said yes, they do use Pinterest.
Speaker C:So actually this 36% stat is only 36% of the nine of the 39%.
Speaker C:We're getting really geeky, but even then I'm not buying it.
Speaker C:So look, I think there's a really important story here.
Speaker C:I've got the privilege in my role of getting to assess and coordinate work with research companies about the topics that we put on show.
Speaker C:I would not put this research on our stage.
Speaker C:There's some great, really great, innovative consumer research out there and unfortunately this falls short of it.
Speaker C:It's such an important topic.
Speaker C:That's why it's kind of wound me up.
Speaker C:So I anyway rant over unless, please disagree with me.
Speaker C:But I, I don't buy the numbers at all.
Speaker A:No, I, I'm seeing.
Speaker A:Hallelujah.
Speaker A:I wanna, I'll say why I don't go back to Ed to see if she wants to reframe her points, but like, yeah, I mean, hallelujah.
Speaker A:This is why we started this show, is to pick apart what is real and not real in the media from the perspective of, of the three of us really, as examples of people that have done and lived this, you on the research side, us on the retailer side.
Speaker A: n, like, who was president in: Speaker A:Like, I'm not going to Pinterest for that.
Speaker A:And that's part of a search query.
Speaker A:So, like, I don't understand that.
Speaker A:And then the other point, Ben, I'll take your rat and see.
Speaker A:I'll call the rat and meet it where it was.
Speaker A:But like, getting people to search on Pinterest is one thing, but getting them to conduct commerce is another thing.
Speaker A:And we've heard, I've heard on stage many times at Shop Talk and other conferences is Pinterest positioning themselves to do that.
Speaker A:And even the article says the retailers don't know how to use it for that.
Speaker A:And so that's still a fundamental problem.
Speaker A:But I am buying 100%, like you said, into search changing.
Speaker A:And, and people need to think about it because I mentioned the Kentucky Derby at the outset.
Speaker A:I said this to Ann yesterday.
Speaker A:We were sitting back at the end of our weekend and I said to my buddies, I said, you know who won the weekend?
Speaker A:Chat freaking GPT.
Speaker A:We were using Chat GPT every single day, every single hour to do everything.
Speaker A:And it was wild.
Speaker A:And I've never seen adoption to that point so quickly happen.
Speaker A:And so, yes, that's, that's absolutely going to, going to continue to change the landscape here.
Speaker A:But Ann, what do you think?
Speaker A:Are you revising your, your bullishness on Pinterest at all?
Speaker B:Given a shopping, not in a shopping context at all.
Speaker B:Because I think that you're talking, I totally agree with what you guys are saying from a search perspective.
Speaker B: e president was in, you know,: Speaker B:But I think if you're talking about intent to purchase or intend to inspire a commerce based purpose purchase, I do think that Pinterest has a role to play here that we have to give credit to.
Speaker B:I do think that there are people who are going to Pinterest for these searches.
Speaker B:We may not be of that group that's doing that, but I do think that it's important for brands to recognize even when you're going to chat GPT or Perplexity or Gemini to conduct searches for product or you're using Lens for a search for product, they are returning Pinterest results in those searches.
Speaker B:So I think there, there is a connection point here.
Speaker B:I think it's just not all search is going in that direction and that's why I was, I was really focused in at the beginning of this conversation on the ways that search is changing with image based search being a core function that Pinterest can provide here.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I really agree and this is what, this is what wound me up about that press release because you're absolutely right and you, and it's so important for everybody to understand how this is.
Speaker C:Chang, I, I think you data that I've seen that I would more buy into says yeah, yeah, okay, look across the whole search environment, Google dominates and search engines dominate, but commerce is different.
Speaker C:So yes, search search engines are really important.
Speaker C:Google dominate.
Speaker C:But then retailer owned properties both online and in store, that's how people discover products still are really important.
Speaker C:And within that market Amazon search completely dominates.
Speaker C:And then you've got social media and social media is 10 to 20% and it's growing and it's changing.
Speaker C:But within that Meta still dominates.
Speaker C:That's why Meta and Amazon and Google have got such huge advertising businesses.
Speaker C:But the social media bits for useful search is growing.
Speaker C:We've seen it through TikTok, we've talked about that before and Pinterest is absolutely part of that.
Speaker C:What then becomes really interesting is to think how do you influence that if some of your traditional marketing tools and your sponsorship aren't available and that's exactly what Perplexity told us in their keynote at Shop Talk Spring.
Speaker C:They said, we are not providing the ability to influence search results commercially.
Speaker C:We want it to be organic.
Speaker C:And that has been paying.
Speaker C:To influence search results is the number one bit of digital marketing.
Speaker C:So you remove that.
Speaker C:We still don't know what that market looks like.
Speaker C:So that, that, yeah, I think it's fascinating.
Speaker C:And search is changing so quickly and our ability to influence is changing so quickly with it.
Speaker B:Well, and I would argue even, Ben, that Google's not in a position to do that yet either.
Speaker B:Like, Google's still so focused on returning the right search results that they're still working to get to, to the level where commerce is integrated into the Google search too.
Speaker B:So I think that's where we get to.
Speaker B:This is fair game search, search for commerce is fair game right now.
Speaker B:And everybody who is any, you know, any search engine, any social platform, any brand, you all need to be really thinking about how you're getting involved and what unique proposition you have to a consumer to come to you first for search.
Speaker A:I didn't even talk about the agentic AI angle in that whole discussion either, which just adds a whole nother layer to the discussion, which we don't have time for today.
Speaker A:But we talked a little bit about it last week.
Speaker A:I mean, your head just starts to spin in terms of where this all goes, right?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
