The Verified Merchant Program helps people on Pinterest discover and buy from vetted brands. It’s essentially a program with special perks for merchants that meet a particular set of criteria. As a verified merchant, your Pins may appear organically to people who are searching for products and shopping on Pinterest. Once approved, verified merchants will get a blue checkmark on their profiles, similar to verified profiles on other social media platforms.
Benefits on being a verified merchant on Pinterest
There are several benefits associated with the Verified Merchant Program. These include:
- Eligibility for distribution of your products within Pinterest shopping experiences.
- A blue checkmark on your profile and Pins letting people on Pinterest know you’ve been vetted.
- Price and availability information on all your product Pins.
- A shop tab on your profile making it easier for people on Pinterest to see what you sell.
- Conversion Insights Tool. This provides users with analytics about conversions as well as measurements for organic and paid Pins.
- Capabilities for dynamic retargeting. This means you will be able to users that came to your website via a Pinterest ad but didn’t end up buying anything.
- Verified merchants have access to new features sooner.
Requirements to apply for the Verified Merchant Program
To become a verified merchant, you need to have an active catalog, a functioning tag, and meet Pinterest’s Merchant guidelines.
a. Connect your catalog
Get all of your products on Pinterest by connecting your catalog. Once connected, your product Pins will have the most up-to-date price and product information. At least 50% of your products have to be ingested successfully to be Verified Merchant Program eligible.
b. Install the Pinterest tag
Measure the impact Pinterest is having on your business by installing the Pinterest tag. Your tag needs to be set up so that it tracks key conversion events and returns high-quality data on shopping-related events. To be included in the Verified Merchant Program, please make sure:
- Your tag fires whenever a PageVisit, AddToCart or Checkout event occurs.
- Your tag fires at least one PageVisit, AddToCart and Checkout event every seven days.
- Your Checkout events have parsable, positive $ values with valid currency code.
- Your product IDs sent in each of your tag events match product IDs in your catalog.
Pinterest recommends using enhanced match and installing the JavaScript tag instead of the IMG tag. This way, you can see more conversions by tracking website actions when there’s no Pinterest cookie present.
c. Meet Pinterest’s merchant guidelines
To verify your account, Pinterest makes sure that you have clearly-stated policies, don’t see prohibited products, and aren’t a spammer or dropshipper. You’ll have to meet all Pinterest merchant guidelines. Any verified merchant who doesn’t have an active catalog or functioning tag will have 30 days to meet requirements before being removed from the program. Those who don’t meet the guidelines will be removed immediately.
How to apply to be a verified merchant on Pinterest
If you meet the criteria, you can proceed to apply to join the Verified Merchant Program.
Why was your application to the Pinterest Verified Merchant Program rejected?
Since Pinterest sets high standards for website quality in the Verified Merchant Program, your application could have been rejected because of the following reasons:
- Grammatical errors, spelling errors, or excessive typos.
- Forcing users to visit another page that is not yours.
- Fuzzy, pixellated, or non-high quality images.
- Multiple ads or popups you can’t close
- Unoriginal content in page sections or product descriptions.
- Stock images.
- Out of date/out of season content (example: Christmas sales in February).
- Out of stock products.
- Your shipping policy, return policy, and terms and conditions are not prominently displayed.
Another reason for your application being rejected could be related to your brand presence. Check for the following:
- Your business name and social media name aren’t consistent.
- Social media posts are just memes or quotes.
- Social media accounts haven’t had new content posted in the last 30 days.
- Your Pinterest account isn’t at least three months old.
- Your website domain doesn’t match the verified site on your Pinterest profile.
You can take steps to correct any errors and reapply to the Verified Merchant Program in 30 days. But, if you’re confident that your application was denied in error, you can reach out to Pinterest and open a support ticket. Here’s how:
- Go to Pinterest’s Contact Page.
- Select “Businesses and Advertising”.
- Select “Shopping”.
- Click “Continue”.
- Select “Verified Merchant Program”.
- Then submit your details and describe the problem to Pinterest.
Reasons for suspension from the Verified Merchant Program
There are two main reasons for VMP suspension: issues with catalog uploads and malfunctioning tags. If your catalog was not uploaded correctly or your tag is not functioning correctly, you’ll be alerted on the business hub as well as via email. Once alerted, you’ll have 30 days to fix your catalog or tag. If your catalog or tag are not fixed in 30 days, you may be suspended from the program. If you resolve the issue after being suspended, you will be automatically re-enrolled in the program.
