Pinterest is five years old. In that half-decade, the image collection and curation social media site has grown at breathtaking speed; currently there over 70 million active users, 85% of whom are female. Now Millward Brown, a division of the world’s second largest market research company, has released a study detailing exactly how influential Pinterest is in its users’ purchasing decisions.

[Tweet “87% – nearly 9 out of 10! – Pinterest users have made a purchase because of the platform.”]

It’s well-known that people use Pinterest as a planning and inspiration resource prior to major milestone events in their lives, such as engagements, weddings, baby showers and graduations. Other key milestone events include buying a home or doing a remodel. 46% of the people in the Millward Brown study report using Pinterest in this way.

The journey from planning to purchase is streamlined by Pinterest. An astonishing 93% of users choose Pinterest as a tool for planning specific purchases. This can be the bride to be, who pins images of gowns, engagement rings, wedding favors and more; or the home remodeler who creates boards filled not only with the way they’d like their new room to look but with all the power tools and supplies they’ll need to make it happen. Pinterest is very powerful for the ‘browse now, buy later’ shopper, who often returns to the images they’ve collected as a starting point when they’re actually ready to make a purchase.

Finally, Pinterest is a valuable discovery tool for today’s shopper. 87% – nearly 9 out of 10! – Pinterest users in the Millward Brown study report buying an item because of Pinterest. This may be because Pinterest is where they first discovered the item, or because seeing numerous other Pinterest users collecting images of that item prompted them to think they really wanted to own it for themselves.

There are a lot of jokes out there about Pinterest being a massive time waster; after all, users spend over an hour per visit on the site, exponentially more than they spend on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. However, it’s important to remember that those users aren’t just browsing, they’re shopping – and that means for the retailer, Pinterest is anything but a time waster!