Pinterest dug deeper into visual search by launching a Complete the Look shopping tool that recommends relevant products in home and fashion categories based on the context or keywords in the search.

Then on Monday at Cannes Lions, the company expanded and rebranded its third-party partner program to support a more shoppable experience based on search on the platform.

The new shopping category adds to an existing program with a select group of companies approved to build solutions through Pinterest’s APIs. These include platform partners WooCommerce and Square Online Store, which allow businesses to set up e-commerce sites.

Feed management providers also added include Feedonomics, Productsup, and GoDataFeed, which can manage and optimize product inventory feeds for businesses bringing their product catalogs to Pinterest.

Pinterest took these services global. Emile Bloemen, SVP of strategic partnerships at Berlin-based Productsup, a feed management company that provides the data feed from brands to Pinterest, said there will be changes in the way consumers buy products and where they purchase them online. 

It’s a direct-to-consumer mobile experience where sites like Pinterest — which began as a social site — becomes the search engine that can drive the purchase transaction to the merchant’s website. 

Citing data from Forrester Research, he said consumers can visit “14 different channels before making a decision to buy something.” But all that will change as sites like Pinterest enable search and discovery, Bloemen said.

And when Pinterest takes the consumer to the merchant’s website to process the purchase, it keeps the customer data with the merchant.

“You see this in Southeast Asia, where people search on their mobile phone, and then they’re able to make a purchase,” he said.

Pinterest initially introduced the Marketing Developer Partners program in 2015.

The company also added new international partners to its existing advertising offerings. New partners include MakeMeReach in France and Adsmurai in Spain.