Pinterest Now Sends Alerts When Items You Pin Go on Sale

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By Lauren Indvik2013-08-01 15:33:16 +0100

Pinterest is getting more serious about shopping: The social network announced Thursday that it will now send users notifications when products they've pinned go on sale.

Pinterest will send sale alerts through aggregated emails, so as to prevent users from getting spammed.

See also: 10 Innovative Uses of Pinterest

The alerts should work for most product pins. As of a few months ago, Pinterest started automatically loading price data for many major retailers' products, and is now taking advantage of price adjustment data. A Pinterest spokesperson was unable to say how many retailers had signed on to the program, but did confirm that Pinterest is not taking a cut of any sales.

The feature isn't entirely original. Social startup Lyst introduced the same alert system for Pinterest a little more than a year ago. I was told a few months ago by a person familiar with Lyst's plans that the company was planning to shutter the feature since it "didn't fit with [their] roadmap." Lyst could not be immediately reached for comment.

While Lyst may not be threatened, the new feature does pose a serious threat to browser-based sale alert trackers like Hukkster and PoachIt. Like Pinterest, they ask shoppers to pin/hukk/poach, products, and then e-mail users when those items go on sale. Now that Pinterest offers sales alerts, consumers may find less of an incentive to pin and hukk or poach every product they like on the web.

Image: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images and Pinterest

Topics: Business, hukkster, lyst, pinterest, poachit, retail, shopping, Startups, Work & Play