The rise of the ‘Social Infomediary’; Pinterest Driving More E-commerce Traffic than Google Plus [Infographic]

Social pin-boarding phenomenon ‘Pinterest‘ is driving more traffic to US e-commerce sites than Google+ according to Experian Hitwise data in a new infographic from Monetate.  And e-commerce traffic from the pin-boarding app for collecting and sharing images around themes and personal interests [pinterests] is growing fast; up 389% to apparel retailers July-December 2011.  Overall popularity of the Pinterest app that is currently in ‘open beta’, which received a $27 million funding injection from Andreessen Horowitz in October 2011, valuing the company at $200 million, grew 429% to 7.1m in the last quarter of 2011 – with users accessing the app 11m times per week [wiki].

As an online retailer, social commerce offers you three options – adding e-commerce apps to social media, adding social apps to e-commerce, or driving e-commerce traffic through ‘social infomediaries’ like Pinterest that add a social layer to the e-commerce experience indirectly via a third-party site, without all the hassle of app integration.

Are social infomediaries like Pinterest the future of smart and simple social commerce?