Pinterest today gave users in the US a tool that places similar products next to each other with their price, availability and reviews, and began a limited test of wishlists that notify shoppers in the US and Canada when a saved product drops in price or comes back in stock. Both arrive in a festive shopping update that also moves Pinterest Assistant, the company's conversational shopping tool, into a full-screen experiment and adds editor-picked deal boards and gift guide boards for users worldwide.

The update was published today on the Pinterest Newsroom under the headline "Pinterest makes festive shopping more inspired, personal and easy to act on." The post is filed under the Company and Trends categories. A US-English edition of the same text uses "holiday" where the UK edition says "festive." Neither version announces a new advertising format, and neither gives usage figures for any of the tools it describes.

In Short

Pinterest added a Compare tool for US users today that shows similar products side by side with price, availability and reviews, and it is testing wishlists in the US and Canada that send alerts when saved items get cheaper or return to stock. For retailers and brands, these features move part of the buying decision, the price check and the choice to wait for a discount, inside Pinterest, while only the deal boards and gift guide boards reach users outside North America. Pinterest announced no new ad product and no usage data, and the sources behind its two headline survey figures are not shown on the page.

Four tools, three levels of availability

The post groups the new features under one promise. "With new tools including Pinterest Assistant, Compare, wishlists and festive boards, Pinterest helps to make shopping more inspired, personal and easy to act on," according to Pinterest. It adds a line that reads as a response to the wider debate over automated shopping: "Pinterest is making sure that AI helps people to shop without taking the enjoyment of shopping away."

Availability differs sharply between the tools, and the differences matter for anyone reading the UK edition from Europe.

Feature What it does, according to Pinterest Where it is available
Compare Shows similar products side by side with price, availability and reviews US; mobile via Pinterest Assistant and boards, desktop via the Close-up button
Wishlists Saves products and notifies when tracked items drop in price or return to stock Limited iOS test in the US and Canada
Pinterest Assistant Conversational, multi-turn AI; new full-screen experiment "fully implemented on iOS in the US"
Deal boards and gift guide boards Editor-picked deals, LTK creator picks, curated gift ideas Described as "new global features"

Two of the four feature groups, then, are limited to the US, and a third is a test in two countries. Only the boards are presented as global.

Compare: price, stock and reviews in one view

Compare is the most concrete of the launches. Pinterest frames the problem simply: "Choosing between two great gift options can be harder than finding them in the first place." The company says the feature lets people "weigh up the details that matter once they have found multiple promising ideas."

The description names three data points. "Shoppers can see similar products side by side, with information such as price, availability and reviews, making it easier to choose the right gift before they buy," the post states. The phrase "such as" leaves open whether other attributes appear. Access runs through three entry points: "Compare is available through Pinterest Assistant and boards on mobile and through the Close-up button on desktop for users in the US."

Several questions that bear directly on merchants go unanswered. The post does not say how Pinterest decides which products count as "similar," whether the comparison draws only on products a user has already saved or also pulls in alternatives, where the price, stock and review data comes from, how many products can be compared at once, or whether sponsored products can appear in the comparison view. It also does not say whether merchants can opt out.

The desktop entry point is worth noting. The Close-up view, the screen that opens when a user clicks on a single Pin, is also where Pinterest has started to sell advertising against shopping intent. On the company's October 29 earnings call, chief executive Bill Ready said Visual Search Ads, a format in beta, appear at the top of visual search results and on Pin close-ups, where users look at products they want to buy. A comparison tool on that same surface puts organic product data next to the place where paid placements are being tested. Today's post does not connect the two.

For a merchant, a side-by-side view changes what a product listing has to carry. A product that is out of stock, priced above its neighbour or short on reviews is shown in direct contrast with one that is not, at the moment a shopper is choosing.

Wishlists: alerts on price and stock, still a test

Wishlists take the opposite approach to the decision: they let shoppers delay it. "Shoppers aren't always ready to buy straight away, even when they find something they love," according to the post. Wishlists "give people a dedicated place to save products that they love, making it easy to revisit them when the time is right."

The feature's commercial weight sits in its notifications. "Wishlists can also notify shoppers when tracked products drop in price or come back in stock, helping them to stay on top of savings and avoid missing the items that they want most," the post states. Lists can be shared, and the company describes two uses: a list "to share with family" or one used "to keep track of gifts for everyone on their list."

The scope is narrow. "Wishlists are currently in a limited iOS test across the US and Canada," according to Pinterest, with no indication of how many users are in the test, whether Android or desktop versions are planned, or when a wider release might come.

The illustration that accompanies the section in the UK edition shows a phone screen headed "Wishlist," marked "Protected" with 10 Pins, filter buttons labelled "On sale" and "Purchased," and a pop-up notification reading "Price drop on your wishlist." Prices on the screen are shown in pounds sterling, although the test runs only in the US and Canada. The "Purchased" filter suggests that items can be marked as bought, which would matter on a list shared among family members, but the text of the post does not describe it.

Price-drop alerts are a familiar device in retail. Amazon gave its Rufus assistant price tracking, memory and an automatic purchase function in November 2025, and in May 2026 extended Rufus to a full year of price history, a feature it said more than 50 million customers had used. Google added price tracking alerts and an agentic checkout option to Search in its holiday shopping update of November 2025. The difference in Pinterest's version, as described today, is that it stops at the notification. Nothing in the post suggests that a Pinterest wishlist buys anything on a shopper's behalf.

For merchants, the alert creates a direct line between a price change and a returning shopper. A discount applied on a retailer's own site could, in principle, reach every Pinterest user who has saved that product to a wishlist. Pinterest does not say whether the alerts arrive as push notifications, emails or in-app messages, how quickly a price change is detected, or what threshold counts as a drop.

Pinterest Assistant moves to full screen

Pinterest Assistant has been through several stages in a year. When the company reported third-quarter 2025 results, it said it had begun beta testing the assistant. By May 2026, the assistant was still in a controlled rollout. At the end of October, Ready told analysts that it was generally available in the US and that about 80% of searches through it were commercial.

Today's post repeats the US status in different words. "Pinterest Assistant is fully implemented on iOS in the US," it states, which leaves Android and desktop users out of the description. The new element is the layout. "In a new full-screen experiment, people can explore ideas, ask follow-up questions and refine their plans in one place," according to Pinterest. The word "experiment" indicates that the full-screen version is not yet the default for all users.

The company describes the assistant as one that "brings conversational AI to the forefront, helping people to turn questions into personalised ideas through natural, multi-turn conversations." Its examples are seasonal: "festive gift ideas for the friend who has everything," "décor ideas for a festive evening" or "how to style a festive jumper." In response, the post says, the assistant "can bring together visual inspiration, useful guidance and product suggestions tailored to what someone is exploring, their taste and their plans."

The post does not say how products are chosen for those suggestions, whether paid placements can appear inside assistant conversations, or whether merchants can see how often their products are recommended. The 80% commercial share Ready cited makes those questions more than theoretical. If four in five assistant searches concern things to buy, the assistant is a shopping channel, and the rules for appearing in it are not public.

The update coincides with a change to the rules that govern Pinterest's AI features. Revised Terms of Service take effect today, alongside Generative AI Acceptable Use Guidelines under which users who misuse AI tools can lose access to them or have their accounts suspended or terminated.

What people are searching for, and what the figures leave out

Pinterest pairs the product news with search data. "From Mahjong searches, up 252%, to creative ways to make every present feel more special, people are looking beyond the gift itself," according to the post. "Searches for 'luxury Christmas wrapping paper' are up 246%, while 'gift card presentation ideas' have grown by 620%." It adds that "makers are also embracing festive ideas that they can create, with searches for useful DIY gifts up 1,370%, Christmas appetiser ideas up 1,100% and Christmas coquette nails up 969% year on year."

Laid out in order, the six figures are:

  • Useful DIY gifts: up 1,370%
  • Christmas appetiser ideas: up 1,100%
  • Christmas coquette nails: up 969%
  • Gift card presentation ideas: up 620%
  • Mahjong: up 252%
  • Luxury Christmas wrapping paper: up 246%

The post marks them as year-on-year changes but gives no time window, no market and no search volumes. Without a base, a 1,370% rise could describe a large category or a very small one. The same gaps appeared in Pinterest's Beauty Trend Report 2026 in October, which gave growth percentages for 120 searches with no volumes, no time window and no market. Whether the festive figures are global, or drawn from the UK audience the UK edition addresses, cannot be determined from the post.

Two survey figures without visible sources

The post opens with two survey results. "Last season, 75% of festive-season shoppers said Pinterest helped them to narrow down their options to buy," according to Pinterest. "And 57% of people say that there's a distinction between everyday shopping, which can feel like a chore, and discovering things they genuinely love."

Both carry footnote markers, numbered 1 and 2. The footnotes section at the bottom of the page is collapsed and its text is not displayed in either the UK or the US edition. The survey's sponsor, sample, countries and fieldwork dates are therefore unknown. The first figure is phrased in a way that suggests the respondents were people who already shopped with Pinterest, which would make it a measure of user satisfaction rather than of Pinterest's reach among shoppers in general. The post does not say. Hidden footnotes have been a recurring feature of Pinterest's festive material this autumn: the same was true of its late-September guide claiming that 1 in 2 monthly Pinterest users in Europe keep shopping after Christmas.

Deal boards, LTK creators and gift guides

The features described as global are curated collections rather than tools. "Deal boards will help people to discover trending deals on the items most sought out by users, including products on sale hand-picked by Pinterest editors," according to the post. The phrase "most sought out by users" implies that the selection draws on search or save activity, but no method is given.

Pinterest is also bringing in outside curators. "Pinterest is also featuring curated deals from top LTK creators such as Shakira Patterson and Anna Mae Groves, who have hand-picked their best festive deal finds for busy people on the go," the post states. LTK is a creator shopping platform whose creators earn commission on sales of the products they recommend, an affiliate model. The post does not say whether the curated deals on Pinterest carry commission links, whether the creators were paid by Pinterest for the feature, or how brands might get products onto a deal board.

The third element is gift guides. "Additionally, curated gift guide boards leveraging Pinterest Intelligence make it easier to browse shoppable ideas for everyone on a gift list," according to Pinterest. Boards have carried more of Pinterest's shopping push since October 2025, when it added AI features to them, including a "Make it yours" tab with product recommendations.

Pinterest Intelligence and the data underneath

All of the new tools are attributed to one system. "These festive features are powered by Pinterest Intelligence, which brings together Pinterest's first-party signals, visual understanding technology and purpose-built AI models to make discovery more personal, relevant and actionable," the post states.

The description is general. "First-party signals" means the behavioural data Pinterest collects on its own platform, such as searches, saves and clicks, the kind of first-party data that has grown in value as third-party tracking has narrowed. Pinterest has long described the result of that data as a taste graph, a map of the connections between users, Pins and interests, and the post's reference to suggestions tailored to someone's "taste" points in the same direction. The company does not name the models behind Compare, wishlists or the assistant.

The infrastructure behind that work is costly. In June, Pinterest disclosed a planned $4 billion commitment to Amazon Web Services through 2031. The same month, it introduced an experimental Ask Pinterest app and a Pinterest MCP server in alpha with agency partners, both aimed at bringing its catalogue of ideas and products into AI-driven search.

Why it matters for marketers

The timing has a financial backdrop. On October 29, Pinterest reported third-quarter revenue up 12% to $1.174 billion, below the range it had guided to, and forecast fourth-quarter growth of 8% to 12%. On the same call, Ready said users run more than 80 billion searches a month, more than half of them commercial. The fourth quarter carries the festive season, and features that keep shoppers on Pinterest through the moment of choice serve the company's case to advertisers that intent formed on the platform ends in sales.

That case has been made repeatedly this autumn. On October 19, the company argued that 36% of its ad impact arrives after a campaign's eighth week, citing a study it commissioned. A week later, it opened Programmatic Deals to outside buying platforms including Amazon's and Google's, in three regions but not Europe.

Competitors are building shopping assistants of their own, several of which go further than Pinterest in completing purchases. Amazon introduced Alexa for Shopping in May 2026, merging Rufus and Alexa+ into one assistant, and on November 6 began an invite-only test of orders placed by text message. Walmart's Sparky gained holiday features that turn photos of handwritten lists into shopping carts at the end of October. Pinterest's approach, as set out today, keeps the shopper in a browsing and comparing role and leaves the transaction to the merchant.

For European advertisers, the practical picture is narrower than the UK headline suggests. Compare and Pinterest Assistant are described for US users only, and wishlists for a test in the US and Canada. Of today's features, only the deal boards and gift guide boards are presented as available to UK and other European users this season.

What the post does not say

  • How Compare selects "similar" products, or whether sponsored products can appear in it
  • Where price, availability and review data come from, and how often it is refreshed
  • How many users are in the wishlist test, and when it might expand
  • Whether paid placements can appear inside Pinterest Assistant conversations
  • How brands or products get onto deal boards and gift guide boards, and whether the LTK picks carry commission links
  • The market, period and volumes behind the six search figures
  • The sources behind the 75% and 57% survey figures

Timeline

Summary

Who: Pinterest, the visual search and shopping platform, with LTK creators Shakira Patterson and Anna Mae Groves contributing curated deals. The features affect Pinterest users in the US and Canada most directly, and retailers, brands and advertisers whose products appear on the platform.

What: Pinterest launched Compare, which shows similar products side by side with price, availability and reviews; began a limited iOS test of wishlists that alert shoppers to price drops and restocks; moved Pinterest Assistant into a full-screen experiment; and added editor-picked deal boards and gift guide boards described as global. The post also cites year-on-year search increases of up to 1,370% and two survey figures whose sources are not displayed.

When: Pinterest published the announcement today, the same day its revised Terms of Service and Generative AI Acceptable Use Guidelines take effect. Compare is available now; the wishlist test and the full-screen assistant experiment have no announced end dates or wider release dates.

Where: Compare and Pinterest Assistant are described for users in the US, Compare on mobile and desktop and the assistant on iOS. Wishlists are in a limited iOS test in the US and Canada. Deal boards and gift guide boards are described as global. The announcement appeared on the Pinterest Newsroom in UK and US English editions.

Why: Pinterest is trying to keep shoppers on its platform from the first idea to the final choice during its most important quarter, after third-quarter revenue growth slowed to 12% and its fourth-quarter forecast came in at 8% to 12%. For merchants, the features put price, stock and reviews in direct comparison at the moment of decision and tie price changes to returning shoppers, while the rules for how products are selected, and whether ads appear in these tools, have not been published.