Social design inspiration company Pinterest has launched a new feature that lets users go more smoothly from discovery to purchase.

Its introduced mobile deep links on Pinterest Shopping ads. Consumers can use the feature to navigate directly to a specific page within a retailer’s app if it’s installed on their device. If not, they go to the mobile web page instead.

Either way, it shortens the path to purchase by removing additional steps. Obviously, this should lead to higher conversions for advertisers and retailers.

Bill Watkins, chief revenue officer at Pinterest, said the majority of people who use Pinterest say they come to the platform to shop. He added: “We’re seeing a nearly 30 percent increase in attributed checkouts for retailers who upload their catalogs. By introducing mobile deep links, we’re now making it easier to connect our users with retailers to shop the products they discover on Pinterest.”

Pinterest, which has 463 million monthly users, has carved out a niche for itself as the social service for fashion and interiors inspiration. But it has struggled to turn that niche into revenue of the kind enjoyed by Meta, TikTok, YouTube et al.

It has upped the ante on advertising this year. In spring it selected Amazon as its first ever partner for third-party ads.