Pinterest is on a mission to become a unique and popular shopping destination for its users across the globe. Its UK director of retail Caroline Orange-Northey talks to Retail Week about partnerships, AI enhancing the user experience, and why it’s preparing for peak now.
Orange-Northey has been in her role at Pinterest since September last year but spent a decade at Amazon Ads in various senior roles.
Her experience has put her in good stead to lead the UK retail arm of Pinterest, as she leads efforts to connect retailers and brands with shoppers while creating a more enhanced user experience through AI and personalisation.
With over 570 million global active monthly users as of May 2025, Orange-Northey explains why Pinterest is striving to become a “retailer’s best friend”.
Which retailers do Pinterest work with?
“We work with fashion, home, beauty, luxury, travel, autos, and grocery retailers – it’s a very broad church. It’s any retailer that wants to find customers who are looking to discover, plan, and shop all in one place. We’re increasingly working with retailers that are trying to drive more revenue. We worked with Sweaty Betty last year in a full-funnel campaign and they found Pinterest to be their most performant partner and return on ad spend was up 39% year over year.”
How successful has the collaboration with Primark been?
“It’s been amazing. It brings me a lot of satisfaction that we took Pinterest trend data like searching habits to inform physical product development for a retailer like that.
“I think that a future-focused mission mindset on Pinterest means that we’ve got billions of pin boards, and lots of clever machine learning that informs us we’re really good at predicting the future, which is a real strength. So to be able to work with Primark on trends with sufficient lead time to influence product development was super cool.
“Primark saw a 115% uplift in store sales of the Pinterest-inspired product range and its click-and-collect sales of this range increased by 273%. I would invite any retailer that wants to partner to think differently about Pinterest because customers come looking to be surprised and delighted. I think retailers can tap into that to create something quite special.”
Pinterest reached an all-time high of monthly active users recently. Does this involve more people shopping on the platform?
“Definitely. There’s been a real shift over Pinterest’s evolution because it used to be a bit of a pain point to curate a vision of what you want to buy but can’t then click through to it. We very much listened to feedback from our own customers and have worked really hard, particularly over the last two years to really satisfy that need and we’re seeing that it is working.
“If we look at our Q1 results, we saw that shopping revenue in international markets was growing at three times the rate of our overall revenue. So it’s definitely becoming the most important part of Pinterest.”
“I think it’s just about maximising those moments and trying to make that experience for customers joyful, not stressful”
How important are seasonal events, religious holidays and occasions to shopping on Pinterest?
“I’ve noticed in the retail calendar that moments have elongated and overlap a bit. You’ve got a new year, Valentine’s Day, Ramadan, Easter, Mother’s Day, festival fashion, Father’s Day – there’s always something happening. But I’d say peak is really important in the retail calendar.
“As people start planning on Pinterest earlier, my advice to retailers is to talk to us earlier because we’re already having discussions about Christmas and peak now. Gifts and presents get over a billion searches, so it is a critical period for us as well. I think it’s just about maximising those moments and trying to make that experience for customers joyful, not stressful.”
How important is AI for the user experience?
“Making the platform feel personally relevant and resonant – AI and personalisation help to do that. I definitely think we’re in the dawn of visual search, as AI has really taken it to the next level. I might see a pair of shoes I like, but don’t know they’re called espadrilles so having a visual search is really critical for us.
“AI has benefits for the end customer, but also benefits brands and advertisers we work with. With our performance plus suite, the simplest way I can put it is it takes half the effort and half the inputs to set up a campaign and those campaigns are 20% more performant for shopping companies. I don’t think you can overhype AI. It’s like the invention of the internet – it’s going to have a fundamental impact on all of our lives.”
What’s next for retail on Pinterest?
“We want to be a retailer’s best friend. I think as technology evolves, we will continue to make it easier for customers to go from inspiration to purchase.
“I see Pinterest as the ultimate shop window. I want us to be a gateway for discovery and I think AI will supercharge those efforts. In the near term, it’s about deepening our relationship with retailers and to keep informing more joyful shopping journeys.”
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