Pinterest rolls out “tried it” button, allowing users to catalogue and review Pins they try
Context & Ripple Effects
The 'tried it' button lands mid-arc in Pinterest's push from inspiration board to commerce engine. Earlier in 2016 the company rolled out a shopping bag, buyable pins on web, and camera-based visual search, and before that it added price-drop notifications so saved products could convert when they got cheaper.
What's new here is the feedback loop: until now a Pin recorded intent, not outcome. Letting users catalogue and review what they actually tried gives Pinterest — and the merchants whose goods fill its feeds — a validation signal on top of the save, complementing the ads already running in home feeds.
First-order effects
- Users gain a way to mark Pins as attempted and attach reviews, turning boards from wish lists into personal logs of what worked.
- Merchants and creators whose Pins get tried now receive user-generated endorsement data attached directly to their content.
Second-order effects
- Aggregated 'tried it' activity sharpens Pinterest's recommendations and ad targeting, since confirmed attempts are a stronger purchase-intent signal than saves alone.
- Rivals building shoppable feeds face pressure to match the review layer, because a platform that closes the loop from discovery to verdict captures more of the buyer journey.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, visual discovery platforms consolidate around closed-loop commerce where every user action — save, click, try, review — becomes training data for the ad system, raising the cost of entry for anyone without first-party behavioral data.
The trend: Pinterest is steadily converting passive saving into active, attributable user behavior to underwrite its advertising and shopping business.