YouTube announced Tuesday that it is launching new shopping features that will allow creators to curate shoppable collections, better plan shoppable videos, quickly monetize older videos and more.
The introduction of this new feature comes as TikTok Shop seeks to compete with YouTube Shopping and other competitors in the space. TikTok is reportedly aiming to expand the size of its TikTok Shop US business tenfold to $17.5 billion this year.
YouTube is launching “Shopping Collections,” where creators curate products from their favorite brands for users to browse. Creators can choose products based on themes such as everyday makeup or capsule wardrobe. Collections appear in creator product listings, store tabs, and video descriptions. At launch, creators will be able to create collections in the Studio app on their smartphones. YouTube plans to bring this feature to desktop soon.
Image credit: YouTube
Additionally, YouTube is launching a new Affiliate Hub within the app, making it easier for creators to find information about the latest list of shopping partners, competitive commission rates, and promo codes. Creators can also use the hub to request samples from top brands. According to YouTube, the idea behind the new hub is to make it easier for creators to plan their next shoppable video.
YouTube is also adding Fourthwall, a website builder that helps creators build shops, to its list of integrated platforms. By allowing users to connect to their Fourthwall Shop, YouTube is making it easy for users to create and manage content directly in YouTube Studio. YouTube already offers integration with Shopify, Spreadshop, and Spring.
Image credit: YouTube
Last year, YouTube launched a feature that allows creators to bulk tag products across their video library based on products added to the video description. YouTube is now expanding this feature to all shopping creators. The company says this feature will allow creators to earn more money from older content if that content still has high traffic.
As part of Tuesday's announcement, YouTube revealed that users watched more than 30 billion hours of shopping-related videos in 2023. The platform has seen a 25% increase in watch time for videos that help people shop on YouTube.