Pinterest inspires gift givers with holiday gift guides
One of the major holiday challenges is what to give people; the social network aims to solve this problem by rolling out more than 100 holiday gift boards organized by notable pinners and celebrities.
Shopping for gifts can be difficult. It's sometimes impossible to find the right present for certain people -- there are those people who have everything and those who don't want anything. To tackle this conundrum, Pinterest is trying out ways to help gift givers this year.
Ahead of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy weekend, the social network has rolled out two separate holiday resources -- the Holiday Giving Guide and the Holiday Gifts Feed.
"In the spirit of the season of Pinspiration, we're unveiling our first-ever Holiday Giving Guide," Pinterest's head of community marketing, Katie Garlinghouse, wrote in a blog post Wednesday. "We asked some creative Pinners to share their favorite gift ideas to help you find the most imaginative gifts for every type of person on your list."
In the Giving Guide, users can find more than 100 boards filled with ideas for those hard-to-shop-for-people. For instance, on the "Mancave dweller" board, people can find a bar tool set, baseball chair, and foosball coffee table. On the "Roller derby girls" board, people can find roller skate earrings, custom painted helmets, and books about the sport.
Pinterest also selected a handful of celebrities and notable pinners to create holiday boards, such as "Fun gifts for white elephants" by Queen Latifah, "Gourmet gifts for foodies" by Andrew Zimmern of Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods, and "Gizmo gifts for geeks" by tech author and investor Guy Kawasaki.
Similarly, the Gifts Feed features products and pins from retailers like Target, Anthropologie, and Epicurious. Users can sort this feed and browse products with filters like "Gifts for her," "Gifts for him," and "Gifts for kids." With all of this help, it seems like there's no good excuse for copping out and buying socks and underwear.
Earlier this month, Pinterest began partnering with a number of brands and retailers to carry the service's pins on their own Web sites. Brands like Zappos, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Disney now greet their digital visitors with pin-boards of sorts that feature a selection of their most desirable wares. Pinterest, which has just started experimenting with advertising, is expecting to profit only in attention from these partnerships. It's also aiming to be top-of-mind for all shoppers during this holiday shopping season.