The forecast: The number of US social buyers on Pinterest grew 30.5% in 2020, for a total of 12.0 million, per our estimates. By the end of 2021, that number will grow another 16.4% to reach 13.9 million.

A deeper dive:

• Pinterest released Buyable Pins in 2015, which acted as the platform's main shopping ad product. In 2018, Pinterest pivoted to Product Pins, which led users directly from a post to a retailer's checkout page.
• Idea Pins were rolled out in May 2021 as a copycat of Instagram Stories. Idea Pins double as a discovery mechanism to help users find new creators to follow.
• Pinterest has integrated with Shopify to streamline retailers' use of Pinterest tags and merchandise uploads on the site.
• "Enticing creators to make more brand-sponsored content and directly link to products via its tagging feature could help Pinterest capture a greater share of the growing social commerce market in the US," said Nina Goetzen, eMarketer analyst at Insider Intelligence.

Looking forward: Pinterest buyers will reach 15.1 million in 2022. By 2023, the number of Pinterest buyers will hit 16.0 million and represent 15.7% of US social buyers.