Last week, Pinterest rolled out the ‘buy’ button to thousands more merchants, four months after it unveiled its e-commerce plans. Social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have all jumped on the bandwagon to make their sites and apps shoppable with an additional button to buy the product featured, shortening the process from decision to purchase.

Whether you're planning a wedding, searching for outfits, creating arts and crafts with your children or decorating your home, Pinterest has typically been the platform used for practical and inspirational ideas. Today, the platform stands as a ‘social shop’ for its followers and removes the hassle of searching for an item of interest externally.

According to Fortune.com, the visual discovery tool now has more than 60 million ‘shoppable’ pins available across its platform, with users often searching with the intention to buy. Interesting and eye-catching ‘pins’ - or visual bookmarks - previously directed users  to blog posts or a completely different website. However, with ‘buy’ buttons now embedded onto Pinterest itself, could this affect the way shoppers purchase items from their favourite fashion brands?

Dedicated fashion followers and bloggers are always open to new and innovative companies. Whether it’s eBay, charity shops or vintage marketplaces, they’d go anywhere to get their hands on the unique and exclusive. Let’s face it... no one wants to be caught in the same outfit as someone else, which is why apps including Depop, eBay, Asos Marketplace, ASAP54 and Grabble have generated a stream of income for fashionistas recycling their apparel. Apps like online fashion directory, Shopstyle, owned by POPSUGAR Inc, also has a click-to-buy option and offers high-street brands, but could Pinterest’s latest venture see the likes of POPSUGAR being dethroned?

It's fair to say that there are platforms available for every type of shopper, but Pinterest seems to be the go-to platform which will create success for bloggers and smaller, independent brands who ‘pin’ on a regular basis. With 100 million users, Pinterest already has the numbers and fashion brands to capitalise on its offerings. Many brands have seen company profits double since the ‘buy’ button was introduced, however, bigger brands also stand to benefit from uploading their lookbooks and driving more traffic to their websites through Pinterest.