Lowe's has been using Pinterest for five years to help users visualize home improvement projects by serving up products or collections that are a fit based on their Pinterest profile interests. Now, it's going a step further - it's going to add transaction data to customer Pinterest profiles so it can suggest products to customers. The retailer wouldn't say if the test would be applied to all customers who are Pinterest users or a selected group of them, but Lowe's is growing Pinterest as a product discovery tool to learn more about customers' future intent - a way to target sponsored ads and content as it builds its relationships with customers and prospects. Lowe's plans to test the addition of transaction data with customer Pinterest profiles beginning next year; the company is also partnering with a location-based data provider to test the relationship between Pinterest interactions and traffic to physical stores. Retailers that are selling or marketing home improvement projects to consumers are increasingly looking to Pinterest to assess and build customer intent to purchase products. Lowe's said customers on Pinterest have a 20 percent higher click-through rate on shoppable pins compared to the average rate from Pinterest campaigns. While customers searching on Amazon or Google likely already have an idea of what they're searching for, Pinterest lets customers get creative with design and conceive of ideas even though the purchase may take place months after the initial Pinterest exploration. Read more