Pinterest's luxury audience spends 87% more than shoppers on other platforms, now growing three times faster than its user base

New research positions Pinterest as the single most effective platform for reaching high-intent luxury buyers, but the real story isn't reach. It's what happens before the purchase decision is made.

Three in five luxury shoppers use Pinterest to research luxury brands and products, according to a multi-market study by PA Consulting commissioned by Pinterest. More importantly for luxury marketers: they spend 87% more on luxury goods than shoppers on other social media platforms.

The platform's luxury audience is now expanding rapidly, up 31% year-on-year and growing three times faster than the platform's overall user base. That growth is concentrated precisely where the luxury market is heading: 70% of the Pinterest luxury audience is under 35 years old, and the luxury goods market is likely to double in size by 2030 on the strength of Gen Z spending.

The moment brands actually influence the purchase

The structural difference isn't demographic. It's behavioural, and it matters more than the spend figures suggest.

People go to Pinterest with a purpose. Every day, millions of users visit the platform with an intention: find the right content that will help them take action on it, Pinterest states in the study. That intent is what separates a Save from a scroll.

Where Instagram and TikTok optimise for attention and time spent, Pinterest's core mechanic is curation for future action. Each week, users save more than 1.5 billion pins across more than 10 million boards, building references for purchases they haven't made yet but are actively considering.

For luxury brands, that means reaching this highly engaged audience the moment they form an opinion and make a purchase decision, according to Kelly Emanuelli, Pinterest's head of luxury. Not after. Not during a distracted scroll. At the exact point where taste is being refined and budget allocated.

The study shows a third of luxury shoppers on Pinterest have annual incomes exceeding $100,000 and are 35% more likely to crack the six-figure mark than luxury shoppers on other platforms. They're also 27% more likely to buy premium products, according to Global Web Index data cited in the research.

What this changes for budget allocation

The commercial implication isn't "add Pinterest to the mix". It's whether luxury brands can afford to miss the planning phase entirely.

More than half of Pinterest's 482 million monthly users consider Pinterest a shopping destination, and Pinterest is the number one destination for inspiration when shopping for luxury products, the PA Consulting study found.

Louis Vuitton used the platform to launch its Yayoi Kusama collaboration across five European markets. The video campaign enabled large-scale awareness through exclusive video placements. With more than 3.5 million users reached in just three days, Louis Vuitton's campaign achieved strong engagement.

But reach alone isn't the value. The mechanism is different from other platforms. Three in five luxury shoppers claim to be open to luxury advertising and they are 85% more likely to be receptive to this kind of advertising, the study reports. Ads on Pinterest don't interrupt intent, they answer it.

Pinterest's own data shows the luxury audience on Pinterest is expanding rapidly, up 31% year-on-year, faster than Gen Z's growth on the platform overall (13% of Gen Z consumers plan to use Pinterest more in 2026, and younger generations are leaning in further with Pinterest use). That cohort will account for up to 85% of luxury purchases by 2030, according to projections cited in Pinterest's business insights.

For social teams managing luxury accounts, the question isn't whether Pinterest converts. It's whether the brand is present at the stage where consideration actually happens, which is often weeks or months before checkout.

Where Pinterest sits in a fragmented strategy

Most luxury social strategies still centre on Instagram for aspirational storytelling and TikTok for younger reach. Pinterest's edge is neither. It's that the platform captures shoppers who search for inspiration, then curate and save the ideas they find to boards and use tools like Direct Links to make their purchase.

The content doesn't need to go viral. It needs to be saved. The reach metric that matters on Pinterest is how many people are building boards with your product in them, not how many saw it once.

That makes creative strategy different. Lifestyle context and aspiration still matter, but the call to action is implicit: worth saving for later. For high-ticket goods where purchase cycles are long, that's often more valuable than driving an immediate click to a product page.

Pinterest's AI ad tools (Performance+) now handle around 30% of its lower-funnel revenue and require about 50% fewer inputs than a standard campaign, making it easier for smaller luxury teams to test without building bespoke creative for every market. But automation only works if the brand understands what people are actually saving, and why.

The risk no one's talking about

Pinterest's own earnings data reveals a gap. Pinterest has increased the number of clicks it sends advertisers by more than five times over roughly three years, but ad revenue has not grown at the same rate, CEO Bill Ready acknowledged. That suggests intent doesn't always convert at the rate the study's spend figures imply.

For luxury marketers, the lesson is this: Pinterest is exceptionally good at capturing people in the research and curation phase. Whether that translates to revenue depends entirely on what happens after the click, which means the landing experience, product availability, and brand trust all need to match the quality of the Pin that got saved.

If those don't align, you're paying for high-intent traffic that drops off before purchase. And at luxury price points, that's expensive validation of interest with no return.

What to do Monday

If you're running social for a luxury or premium brand and Pinterest isn't in your testing budget yet, the case for it is now materially stronger than it was 12 months ago. But this isn't "post more Pins and hope". The format that works is the one people want to save: mood, context, aspiration tied to a specific use case (the outfit for the event, the bag for the trip, the watch for the milestone).

Start with:

Audit what's already being saved. Search your brand name on Pinterest and see what users are pinning. If it's mostly old campaign imagery or low-res product shots, that's the baseline you're working from. If it's curated lifestyle content, someone's already doing the work for you.

Test Idea Pins and video. Brands like Guerlain combining a range of Pin formats increased brand awareness by 16% and drove a 40% lift in add-to-cart conversions. Static posts still work, but video and multi-image formats are where engagement is trending.

Link to content designed for consideration, not just checkout. If your website experience assumes someone's already decided, you'll lose Pinterest traffic. These users are still comparing and refining taste. Give them editorial, lookbooks, or product stories, not just a buy button.

Track Saves, not just clicks. A high Save rate means people are building future purchase intent around your brand. That's harder to attribute directly to revenue, but it's the leading indicator Pinterest is built on.

One thing the study makes clear: the luxury audience on Pinterest isn't aspirational window-shoppers. A third of luxury shoppers on the platform have annual incomes exceeding $100,000, and they spend 87% more on luxury goods compared to other platforms. If your brand's budget still reflects an Instagram and TikTok duopoly, that's a decision you can now attach a cost to.

The platform where people plan their next big purchase is also where they're spending the most on it. Whether that turns into your revenue depends on whether you show up before they've already made the list.