I’m sure there’s an oxymoron somewhere in that sentence, but in any case I thought I’d look at some smaller ecommerce brands to see what they’re doing to compete.

Farmdrop

When it comes to shareable content on social media, everyone loves a good food pic. That’s why people in restaurants pick up their phone before their fork when their dinner arrives (*unimpressed face*).

London-based local produce delivery firm Farmdrop has quite rightly jumped on that idea and created some really attractive Pinterest boards

Farmdrop Pinterest page

As you would expect from a company that sells local organic food, there is a board related to seasonal produce.

Farmdrop Pinterest page

But Farmdrop also gets involved with foodie trends such as Veganuary (it’s a thing, apparently), as you can see from the board below.

Farmdrop Pinterest page

But my favourite part about Farmdrop’s Pinterest page is the brilliant use of colour, like this board of various green foods.

Farmdrop Pinterest page

Or this one, which frankly makes me ashamed of my limited carrot knowledge.

Farmdrop Pinterest page

I like Farmdrop’s Pinterest page because it achieves something quite clever: it hardly ever links to its own content but almost everything it posts about involves the products it sells in some way (recipes, etc).

To me, this is exactly the balance that this type of businesses should be aiming for on Pinterest.

Firebox

Seller of weird and wonderful stuff Firebox has split its Pinterest board in much the way you’d expect: some seasonal boards such as ‘Festival Must Haves’ and others grouped by product type.

Firebox Pinterest page

Firebox is one of those rare and brilliant brands whose product range is so interesting it makes for good content in itself.

Take the ‘WTF’ board below, for example. From the guitar amp fridge to the hot tub that’s also a boat, this would make for a pretty interesting Pinterest board in its own right, but all those products happen to be stocked by Firebox.

Firebox Pinterest page

There’s even a limited addition solid silver anus (which contributes nothing to this post but simply had to be included).

Firebox Pinterest page

Firebox also makes really good use of imagery for its pins, using multiple photos in a series to show different sides or uses of a product.

You can see this in the ‘Make Your Own’ example below.

Firebox Pinterest page

Unlike Farmdrop above, Firebox almost always links to its own content on Pinterest.

As I mentioned above, though, its product range enables it to do this without ever being boring or too ‘salesy’.

Bellroy

The main reason I chose to cover Bellroy is that it has a Pinterest board dedicated exclusively to owls.

This isn’t as silly as you might think given that an owl features in its logo. Pictures of animals tend to do well on social media and it has the added bonus of strengthening the Bellroy brand.

Bellroy Pinterest page

My personal favourite…

Bellroy Pinterest page

As for the rest of its Pinterest page, Bellroy has a mixture of product-related pins and general design or lifestyle categories.

Bellroy Pinterest page

The latter is almost entirely made up of third party content, such as the ‘Design Inspiration’ example below.

Bellroy Pinterest page

Bellroy does link to quite a bit of its own content in its ‘Adventure Bound’ board.

Each photo links back to a nice-looking travel tips blog post on the Bellroy website.

Bellroy Pinterest page

Rokit

Vintage store Rokit was always going to have a lot of potential for an interesting Pinterest page, and I’m pleased to say it doesn’t disappoint.

There’s lots of colour and plenty of vintage imagery to keep Rokit’s target customers happy.

Rokit Pinterest page

I like that the page isn’t just focussed on clothing. In the example below you can see there are boards relating to different decades, areas, tattoos, weddings and lots more.

Rokit Pinterest page

There are also a couple of board dedicated to male and female fashion icons throughout the years, labelled ‘Gods’ and ‘Goddesses.’

Again, this type of content is always going to be popular and it’s very relevant to Rokit’s market.

Rokit Pinterest page

Rokit Pinterest page

Last but not least: no fashion brand’s Pinterest page would be complete without the obligatory board of inspiring and shareable quotes.

Rokit Pinterest page

Tatty Devine

Jewellery maker Tatty Devine has the most Pinterest followers out of the five companies I’ve covered, so it must be doing something right.

Most of the pins link back to the Tatty Devine site, with only a small amount of third party content.

As with Firebox, though, I think its products are interesting enough that they make for good content in themselves.

Tatty Devine Pinterest page

Tatty Devine also has an entire board dedicated to its minion jewellery collection.

Given how many Minion memes get shared on Facebook every day (and the recent release of the film) I’d say this is a clever move (although, I hate to say it, I’m kind of bored of Minions now. You ruined it, Facebook).

Tatty Devine Pinterest page

Playing on the ‘inspiring quotes’ theme that so many fashion brands seem to love, Tatty Devine has used its own collection of speech bubble necklaces to create this type of board.

Whether you’re a ‘babe with power,’ a big fan of Anchorman or ‘so quiche,’ there’s something here for everyone.

Tatty Devine Pinterest page

There is one board linking exclusively to external sites, called ‘we like,’ and I have to say it does contain some pretty decent content. And look: there’s even a trusty inspiring quote in there.

Tatty Devine Pinterest page

Conclusion: SMEs have more fun

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like these brands are having much more fun on Pinterest than the five I covered in my previous post on the subject.

There could be a number of reasons for this:

With generally more relaxed brand guidelines and fewer layers of approval, smaller businesses can act more quickly and arguably be more creative and experimental than their corporate counterparts.

Also, smaller businesses may need to be more creative in order to stay relevant and competitive in their markets.

A company like Amazon, on the other hand, probably doesn’t need to worry quite so much about making a big impression on Pinterest, so can focus more on using it to draw people in to specific product pages.