A new round of investing from Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten could lead to more interest in Pinterest marketing.

AllThingsD.com reported on Thursday that social sharing and bookmarking website Pinterest has secured $100 million in funding from Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten after being valued at $1.5 billion. This could mean Pinterest ecommerce capabilities will soon be available to brands using the site for social marketing.

Pinterest marketing has become increasingly popular in recent months as the website continues to add users. Its focus on visual content has provided an interesting alternative in social media marketing, especially for B2C companies who can share images of their products or brands that produce industry focused infographics.

It’s likely that the investment from Rakuten will result in some focus on the creation of an ecommerce element to the site. Sharing images and other visuals is already a strong marketing development. However, the backing from Rakuten could lead to one of the first truly successful social ecommerce endeavors that pairs visual marketing with the ability to buy what you see directly from Pins.

Ben Silbermann, CEO of Pinterest, said in a release that the platform’s “goal is to help people discover things they love, by connecting people through their shared interests.” For ecommerce companies, a potential selling solution on Pinterest could make the site an even more appealing social media marketing tool.

Brafton recently reported that Pinterest’s current growth has stagnated a bit. While more people are becoming members of the site, the rate at which it has added new users is falling. Shareaholic data says that Pinterest delivered less referral traffic in April than it did in March, which also saw a drop from February.

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.