Pinterest named Google's Bill Ready, who led the tech giant's commerce efforts, as its new CEO this week in a signal of the growing importance of e-commerce for social platforms. Pinterest marketers see the change in leadership as encouraging, possibly positioning Pinterest to become a truly full-funnel shopping destination.
“Pinterest has been trying to scoot itself closer to the bottom of the funnel for a while to attract advertisers, and this leadership change definitely seems to be aligned with that,” said Melanie Travis, founder and CEO of Andie, a swimwear company and a verified merchant on Pinterest. “We would definitely consider spending more on Pinterest if we saw a stronger return on ad spend in terms of last-click conversions.”
Ready, who replaces Ben Silbermann as CEO, had served as Google's head of commerce, payments & next billion users. Advertisers expect he will help Pinterest forge deeper relationships with retailers. At Google, he oversaw Google Shopping, helped incorporate commerce into YouTube and invested in payment systems like Wallet. He also spent time at both Venmo and PayPal.