Why Buy Buttons on Pinterest and Instagram Haven't Taken Off for Retailers

When Pinterest and Instagram introduced click-to-buy features last summer, the hope was that they would help brands turn mobile browsers into shoppers. After all, mobile represented just 16 percent of e-commerce dollars in 2015, compared to 84 percent on desktop, according to comScore. But these buy buttons haven’t quite taken off as hoped. They generate very low sales volume to retailers and are negligible for most large brands, according to Sucharita Mulpuru, principal analyst for Forrester.