Tesco And Asda Are Most Visible UK Supermarkets On Pinterest, New Searchmetrics Study Reveals

Recipe Pages Are Most Popular Supermarket Content On The image- Sharing Site Which Turns Five This Month

London, March 26, 2015 _ A new study of leading UK supermarket websites [1] finds that Tesco.com and Asda.com have the most ‘pinned’ (shared) content on image sharing website, Pinterest.com, which is five years old this month. Recipe pages are among the most commonly pinned supermarket content, with an Asda recipe for a Penguin themed festive cake earning more pins (shares) than any other supermarket web page.

The study, by search and content optimisation leader, Searchmetrics, analysed the visibility of nine leading UK supermarket websites on Pinterest. As shown in the table underneath, Tesco.com has 43,834 pins (shares) for its web pages on Pinterest, followed by Asda.com with 35,304 pins and Waitrose with 19,474 pins.
The study found that the most pinned content tended to be recipes pages, with a Penguin themed festive cake recipe from Asda being pinned 11,997 times followed by One-Pot Cider Chicken from Waitrose and Cranberry Camembert puffs recipe from Tesco earning 1,677 and 1,343 pins respectively.
“Pinterest has often been associated with recipe sharing so it’s not surprising that the trend continues with the supermarkets recipe pages being very popular on the site. For the stores, getting their recipes shared on social networks is a great way to potentially drive sales of ingredients,” explained Marcus Tober, CTO and founder of Searchmetrics.
When it analysed the average number of pins per week [4] Pinterest users are sharing from the three most visible supermarket websites on Pinterest, Searchmetrics found that Asda was the most popular, currently collecting 1,219 pins per week. This was followed by Tesco and Waitrose, collecting 684 and 203 pins per week respectively.
All the supermarket brands except Lidl [2] were found to have a UK Pinterest page [3] on which they can share web content at the time of the study. Tesco.com had the most followers (41,581) on Pinterest followed by Sainsbury’s.co.uk and Aldi.co.uk attracting 37,012 and 5,440 followers respectively.
Top UK Supermarkets on Pinterest
1.   Tesco.com, (https://www.pinterest.com/tesco/), 43,834 total pins, 41,581 followers
2.   Asda.com, (https://uk.pinterest.com/asda/), 35,304 total pins, 4,442 followers
3.   Waitrose.com, (https://www.pinterest.com/waitrose/), 19,474 total pins, 5,319 followers
4.   Sainsbury’s.co.uk, (https://www.pinterest.com/sainsburys/), 4,224 total pins, 37,012 followers
5.   Co-operativefood.co.uk, (https://uk.pinterest.com/CooperativeFood/), 1,434 total pins, 853 followers
6.   Aldi.co.uk, (https://uk.pinterest.com/aldiukstores/), 991 total pins, 5,440 followers
7.   Morrisons.com, (https://uk.pinterest.com/morrisons/), 350 total pins, 1631 followers
8.   Lidl.co.uk- No UK Pinterest page, 70 total pins
9.   Iceland.co.uk- (https://uk.pinterest.com/IcelandFoods/), 34 total pinned pages, 2 followers

Pinterest has been reported to have over 70 million active users and is one of the fastest growing social sites in terms of overall member growth. A report from Global Web Index found that Pinterest’s active user base was growing by 111% over a six month period.
“Pinterest has been around for five years and it’s interesting to see most UK supermarkets now have a presence on the site – although some are more active than others. The site has a lot of potential for retailers as they can showcase product images and information to drive traffic back to their own websites and support sales – whether that is online sales or indirectly via their stores. With Pinterest raising more funding, growing fast and continuing to innovate, I would expect supermarkets and other retailers to become more active and have more web content pinned on the site,“ concluded Tober.

[1] Source: The list of the 9 UK supermarket sites included in the study is based on the top supermarket sites (grocery market share) compiled by KANTAR WORLDPANEL: http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/en/grocery-market-share/great-britain
[2] lidl.co.uk did not have a UK Pinterest page at the time of the study; however the supermarket was found to have pages for other countries including Bulgaria, Netherlands Poland and Romania.
[3] The pins (or shares) of web page URLs analysed in Searchmetrics’ study are those pins that users of Pinterest share on their own Pinterest boards. They are not the same as - and do not rely on - the pins being shared by supermarkets themselves on their own Pinterest boards (if they have them).
[4] The average weekly pins per week is based on pins shared over the previous four weeks.