With the end of summer and start of school, back to school shopping is on many consumers minds – 55% are using Pinterest for online shopping according to a Kleiner Perkin’s trend report. BIA/Kelsey track small business use of more than fifty advertising channels in our Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey. Usage of Pinterest and Instagram increased 3-4% from last year as the chart shows. The year over year adoption is faster than other advertising channels like mobile. When we look at which small businesses in specific industries are using Pinterest and Instagram at a higher rate, retail and entertainment small businesses in our most recent LCM 19 (3Q/2015) show the highest penetration. Twenty percent of retail small businesses use Pinterest or Instagram and twenty eight percent of entertainment small businesses use Pinterest (22% use Instagram). Among other industries: professional services, home and trade services and technology small businesses use both Pinterest and Instagram at the same rate as an average small business in our sample as shown in the chart above. We also previously posted about Pinterest usage by industry here. Instagram and Pinterest can be powerful tools to help small business connect with their customers and also learn what they like through the use of hashtags and shared images.
BIA/Kelsey’s LCM, Wave 19 reports can be purchased a la carte in the BIA/Kelsey eStore. Our LCM reports look at where particular SMBs (broken out by size, vertical, etc.) spend the most, as well as the top channels for advertising and marketing.
