Crate+Barrel Launches Online-Only Pinterest Catalog

Need to Know

• The “Crate&kids” catalog, launched this week on Pinterest, marks the first time Crate+Barrel has not issued a physical version of its catalog.
• “Crate&kids” features decor ideas and furniture, which viewers can collect as pins, and interact with Crate+Barrel by posting a comment or question.
• Viewers can shop for items posted on the “Crate&kids” Pinterest catalog by clicking through to the retailer’s website.
• Pinterest has seen a spike in searches for kids’ furnishings and decor.

Analysis

Home furnishings retailer Crate+Barrel has gone online-only with its latest catalog, issuing its “Crate&kids” catalog on Pinterest this week.

The Crate&kids Pinterest initiative marks the first time Crate+Barrel has issued the catalog as a digital offering, rather than in print. Like its print version, the Pinterest catalog will feature furniture and decor for kids’ rooms and nurseries, plus toys and textiles. Pinterest users can browse items, and pin them to their digital pinboards to revisit later. They can also ask questions or post comments directly to pins and click through from Pinterest to the Crate+Barrel website to shop “looks” and individual items.

Crate+Barrel’s pivot to an online-only catalog comes a month after Neiman Marcus made a similar decision with its Fall Book, issuing that catalog as an interactive digital campaign rather than a print product.

The partnership with Pinterest is a good fit for Crate+Barrel, particularly for children’s items, as the social-media service has seen a significant spike in searches for kids’ home furnishings and decor of late, as parents search for ways to facilitate at-home learning during the coronavirus pandemic. According to Pinterest, in-site searches for “homeschool room ideas” increased by five times from June to July, while searches for “kids office” increased by 162%. Non-homeschooling searches have also increased, with “basement kids playroom” growing by 62% and the more general “kids spaces” growing by 33%.

Pinterest has been increasing its services for retailers during the COVID-19 pandemic, recently unveiling a “shop” tab and a verified merchants program to help shoppers find brands that sell directly through the platform. It has also expanded the functionality of Lens, a tool that lets smartphone users find out if items they see in real life are available for purchase online.

Crate+Barrel, too, has been adapting to the new normal of digital-focussed commerce, particularly in regards to smartphone shopping: nearly 60% of Crate+Barrel’s traffic is now coming from mobile. The company has streamlined several of its e-commerce capacities, including expanding its AR viewing capabilities and adapting to offer new options for purchasing decisions that would previously be made in person, such as mailing fabric swatches to customers who are deciding between several upholstery options.