Pinterest has been focusing more and more on ecommerce recently—which is AWESOME.
But one weird part of these changes is that you cannot claim your Etsy shop on Pinterest anymore.
This has a lot of sellers frustrated and wondering “What the heck should I do about this??”
In today’s article we’re going to talk about what this means, why Pinterest changed it, and discuss if Pinterest is still worth using for your Etsy shop.
So, ready? Let’s dive in.
For the longest time (long enough that we all took that feature for granted), even if you didn’t have your own domain/website you could still connect your Etsy shop to your Pinterest account by ‘claiming your Etsy account.’
This meant that when someone was sharing or repinning one of your products on Pinterest, your info appeared next to it and that content was attributed to you.
YAY!
BUT . . . not anymore.
Anyone trying to claim an Etsy account on Pinterest won’t be able to, and if you search Pinterest for help you will find this information:
“The claim your account feature is no longer available for Instagram, Etsy or YouTube. You can still claim your website so that your website content will be attributed to you when people share it on Pinterest.”
They go on to say that
“Going forward, if new content is saved to Pinterest boards from your previously claimed social accounts, your Pinterest profile information will not appear next to it.”
Let’s talk a bit about what this means:
First, your content on Pinterest would not be attributed to you anymore. . . which is a real bummer because it means that even if a pin takes people to your Etsy listing, and even if YOU created that pin… your Pinterest profile information won’t appear on that pin anymore.
This means you also lost the ability to see clearly in Pinterest analytics how well your shop’s pins were performing on the platform – because they’re not officially “your pins” anymore.
And on top of those two changes, if we’re being totally honest… (and I always am!) pins that aren’t from your claimed domain tend to rank a little more slowly. This doesn’t mean they don’t rank, but they won’t rank as fast as if they’re attached to your account.
So in a nutshell, all of this is pretty frustrating.
Let’s take a step back and discuss why this happened.
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With the new heavy leaning towards ecommerce, Pinterest wants ecommerce sellers to use their catalog feature.
Put simply, a catalog is a way for Pinterest to sync all the products sold on a given website and add them as Product Pins on Pinterest automatically.
If you have your catalog uploaded on Pinterest, you can access all the shopping features on the app, plus your pins become product pins — meaning they appear in shopping results, display stock and price, and have so many more features that only exist for product pins.
The problem is … it’s not possible to upload a catalog as an Etsy seller – this is something you need your own website to do…
And if you have an Etsy shop you are renting a space on the Etsy website, which is by definition Etsy’s website, not yours.
So that sucks… but here is some good news!
Etsy is becoming a verified merchant with Pinterest, so although it doesn’t seem to be set up for all countries just yet, it’s clear they have taken the step to upload their “catalog” as that’s a requirement to be a verified merchant.
This means that even if not attributed to you directly, your products will be showing up as product pins on Pinterest with all the ecommerce bells and whistles features that come with it – price, stock, appearing in shopping features on the site, etc.
It also is still possible to check your stats – although not as easily as it used to be, granted! – you have to manually filter out your content when you look at your stats. If you’re only pinning your own content then YAY all the stats are yours!
The last thing to discuss is the million-dollar question: is it worth building your own website to be able to use all these Pinterest features like catalogs, etc?
Here is my advice:
This is OK if you had already planned on doing it, but I would never recommend you do something like that JUST for a platform if it wasn’t part of your plan.
Now, it may be that this Pinterest change is for you “the drop that makes the vase overflow” — like if this is the 10th time you’re thinking “I should really have my own website” . . . not just because of Pinterest but for other Etsy limitations . . . then maybe for you that’s the sign it’s time for you to do it!
My point is, you need to think about it as it’s a fair bit of work – so don’t do it just for Pinterest.
If you decide you’re ready to take the plunge and create your own website, Shopify and Woocommerce are the 2 options I’d recommend as they integrate the most easily with Pinterest.
I have an article that talks about how to get your handmade craft website set up to help guide you through the process.
Look, I know that all these changes are certainly a little bit annoying, but I also don’t want you to think that this is the end of using Pinterest for promoting your Etsy shop.
It’s really no different than if you had a website but didn’t claim it. You can still link all of your pins to your Etsy shop, there will actually already be product pins because Etsy’s catalog is taking care of that.
So it’s just that it will require a little bit more planning to make sure that you give your pins the extra little bit of time they need to rank so that you hit the trends on the platform at the right time.
It’s absolutely still doable to use Pinterest to promote your shop —you just want to be aware of all the details we have talked about today.
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Hopefully that helps you wrap your brain around all of the changes between Etsy and Pinterest!
It’s a bummer and I know it’s frustrating, but I hope this gave you ideas as to how to still make it work!
I want to dive more deeply into how you can still be successful despite these new changes, so next week’s article will be full of my top Etsy/Pinterest success tips.
I will put that link (once it’s live) down below.
Thanks for reading, make sure to check the links below, and until next time, aurevoir!
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Hi Deb,
I discovered this page searching for Etsy + Pinterest.
I find your content and presentation really helpful and instructive.
I am starting up a Print on Demand store on Etsy, and after thinking of joining your course, I see you don’t cater for “Drop Shipping” – does that exclude POD too?
Thanks in advance for your response, any suggestions welcome for an alternative!
Blessings and peace.
Tony
Hello Tony! That’s a great question.
We do have many members who sell their designs or artwork via POD services. They are painters, graphic designers, etc who sell their designs on phone cases, pillow cases, mugs, etc.
What we teach inside the HQ still absolutely applies for POD like Printful, the warning is there (where you read in “This course is not for you”) mostly to avoid getting service-providers (we definitely don’t teach how to sell services) or drop-shippers who aren’t creating the design themselves and for example selling just plain colored hoodies, home accessories manufactured overseas, etc.
I do think the HQ would be a great fit for you – but we also offer a 14 day money back guarantee if you wanted to just look around and see for yourself 🙂 No hard feelings if you decide it’s not for you in the end!
The article is a valuable resource for Etsy sellers looking to expand their reach and enhance their online presence. The author provides clear and concise instructions on how to claim an Etsy shop on Pinterest, showcasing their expertise and commitment to helping entrepreneurs succeed. This unique guide offers practical tips and actionable steps, empowering Etsy sellers to leverage the power of Pinterest to attract more customers and increase sales.
Thank you for your review, Alan! Glad to hear that the article is valuable to Etsy sellers!
The article offers a clear, step-by-step guide to integrating Pinterest with Etsy, increasing brand exposure and sales. The article provides practical tips for optimizing your Pinterest presence and driving traffic to your shop. It’s a must-read for Etsy sellers looking to expand their online reach.
Thank you, William!