• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

In preparation for the holiday season, Pinterest is launching “where-to-buy links,” a new feature designed to drive consumers to retail sites without losing valuable data that advertisers often miss out on with third-party purchases.

According to the social media company, these new links make standard image ads shoppable by surfacing multiple in-stock retailer options for a single product.

By tapping one of these ads, Pinterest users will be able to choose a specific retailer and add the item to their cart.

For brands, where-to-buy links are intended to maintain and deliver consumers’ purchase intent clicks and purchase intent value, helping them better understand how their audience shops on the platform.

Along with enhanced insights, Julie Towns, Pinterest’s vice president of product marketing and operations, says where-to-buy links are intended to help advertisers boost lower-funnel performance, while providing information on the “impact of every dollar” spent.

Pinterest adds that early testing shows these links delivering higher user engagement and “stronger performance” compared to campaigns using external where-to-buy landing pages..

The new feature, which will be made available to all U.S. advertisers in the coming weeks, is powered by ecommerce enablement platforms MikMak and Pear Commerce to help shoppers see relevant in-stock options.