YouTube said on Tuesday that it will be introducing new shopping tools that will enable content producers to more easily monetise their older videos, organize their shoppable videos more effectively, and curate shoppable collections.
The introduction of the new features coincides with TikTok Shop’s attempt to challenge YouTube Shopping and other industry rivals. According to reports, TikTok wants to grow its TikTok Shop U.S. company tenfold this year, to a potential value of $17.5 billion.
YouTube is going to start offering “Shopping Collections,” which will let content producers choose products from their preferred companies for viewers to peruse. Product selection can be based on a theme chosen by creators, such as a capsule wardrobe or an everyday makeup look. The creator’s product list, Store tab, and video description will all display the collections. Creators will be able to create Collections on their phones using the Studio app at launch. Soon, YouTube intends to make the capability available on desktops.
Furthermore, YouTube is introducing a new Affiliate Hub within its app to facilitate artists’ access to up-to-date information about shopping partners, lucrative compensation rates, and promo codes. The site will also allow creators to request samples from leading brands. The new center, according to YouTube, is intended to make it simpler for producers to organize their upcoming shoppable content.
YouTube is expanding its list of integrated platforms to include Fourthwall, a website builder that assists producers in creating stores. YouTube is making it simpler for users to create and manage their content directly in YouTube Studio by enabling users to connect their Fourthwall shop. YouTube already has connections to Spreadshop, Shopify, and Spring.
Features that let artists tag things in bulk throughout their video library depending on products added to the video’s description were introduced by YouTube last year. This capability is currently being extended by YouTube to all shopping creators. According to the company, if an older piece of content is still receiving a lot of attention, this function can help authors make more money from it.
YouTube disclosed on Tuesday that in 2023, viewers viewed more over 30 billion hours of content pertaining to commerce. The amount of time users spent watching YouTube shopping tutorial videos increased by 25% on the platform.
