The Newsstand January 2020

Pinterest Launches ‘Shop’ for Small Businesses

Pinterest is celebrating small businesses with its new Pinterest Shop. Currently home to hundreds of shoppable product pins from 17 small businesses across the US, the new Pinterest shopping section is hand-curated by the company.

For example, Etta + Billie, an all-natural skincare line founded by Alana Rivera in San Francisco is one of their selected shops. Alana found inspiration in her favorite foods and turned lavender shortbread into Lavender Soap and coffee with fresh mint into a Cold Brew Mint Coffee Scrub.

At this time, Pinterest does not allow small business owners to apply to be featured, but Pinterest Shop will be continuously updated with new products from select businesses. 

Shopify Expands Into Email Marketing 

Shopify has expanded its e-commerce platform with the addition of Shopify Email. With customizable email templates along with the ability to pull existing brand assets and product content from your store, Shopify’s chief product officer Craig Miller claims to have created the “first email product designed for e-commerce.”

The new feature is currently available as an early access test to select merchants, but is scheduled for a broader roll-out early this year.

However, it’s important to thoroughly research it’s capabilities and cost before signing up. Some email platforms are very limited in their features, especially when it comes to automated marketing. Wix is a good example of this. Their built-in email platform has limited automation capabilities and the ones that do exist are difficult to set up. 

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