The social media company Pinterest Inc. is driving the strategic expansion of its e-commerce activities with an acquisition. On Thursday, the company announced that it had entered into a binding agreement to purchase fashion retail platform The Yes. The company, founded in 2018, offers its users an AI-based personalized shopping feed.
The Yes combines “commercial expertise with fashion credibility” and has “great leadership, innovative technology and a talented team,” Pinterest said in a statement. With the acquisition, the company is advancing its “vision” of becoming a platform for “taste-driven shopping.” The aim is to transfer The Yes model, which was developed for fashion retail, to other Pinterest categories such as household items, cosmetics and groceries and to create daily personalized shopping feeds for users.
The company said it plans to discontinue The Yes’s own app and website after the acquisition is complete. The newcomer’s team should therefore be integrated into the organization of Pinterest. Julie Bornstein, the CEO and co-founder of The Yes, will report directly to Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann and lead a new department responsible for the entire company’s shopping strategy, the statement said.