The social commerce space is heating up – and fast. Quick on the heels of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten’s investment in Pinterest and Oscar de la Renta selling pre-order Resort 2013 merchandise on Fancy, social commerce platform Lyst recently launched a new feature which allows users to receive instant sale alerts whenever fashion items in their Pinterest boards are marked down.

By connecting their Pinterest account to Lyst (at www.lyst.com/pinterest), users will receive instant notifications on all the merchandise ‘pinned’ or ‘repinned’ if stocked within the hundreds of fashion retailers that Lyst partners with globally. Also, whenever a user ‘pins’ an item from a store, Lyst will relay the item’s availability through other merchants. This can be extremely useful not only when comparison shopping but also in the case a “pin” is sold out at one particular retailer. 

“Pinterest is a great way for people to save and share items they want, but until now there’s been no easy way for them to know when those items go on sale” states CEO of Lyst Chris Morton. “By solving this problem, we’ve made Pinterest even more useful for its users.” Another benefit of the new feature is “pinned” items which are indexed by Lyst reappear in the form of a “collection” on the Lyst site, making for another opportunity for individuals to share their finds with the Lyst community.

The big question hovering above social content sites has been how to monetize and Lyst may have cracked the code with its new tool. As previously mentioned, Pinterest is being associated with commerce more frequently these days. Would this make Lyst and Pinterest competitors in the same space? To this inquiry, Morton replies:

We see Pinterest as a personalised magazine while Lyst is a personalised store. Sometimes magazines drive purchase, but their main purpose is to entertain and inform. As a store, Lyst’s focus is on commerce. We exist to help people find, discover and buy fashion. With the Pinterest integration, we help people buy products, and we tell them when they go on sale.

Will other companies find ways to monetize Pinterest and other social curation sites, or did Lyst just blow their competitors out of the water? One thing is for sure – this space is definitely one to watch.