News came out last night that both Pinterest and Instagram are launching 'buy' buttons, to allow users to purchase the items in the photos and videos shared on the social networks. This is major news for brands that create shoppable content on the social networks. To date, Pinterest has boasted great click-through rates, helping retailers to deliver ROI on their use of the social network, so this move will be a logical progression of where they are now. Instagram on the other hand delivers more of a brand engagement experience, so this move, for them, could revolutionise the social network.

The full lowdown is captured in this review by Hannah Kuchler of the Financial Times:

Ben Silbermann, Pinterest chief executive, announced the “buyable pins” on the online scrapbooking site, with retailers including Macy’s and Nordstrom signed up to sell on the platform.

Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo app that boasts over 300m users, also announced a new advertising product that allows retailers to sell from their mobile app. Instagram had been slowly rolling out advertising, focusing on brand marketing that matched the magazine-like high quality images that users often upload to the platform. But it is now allowing advertisers to add a button to encourage viewers to click through to their ecommerce site, install an app or sign up to a mailing list.