YouTube Enables Creators to Curate Products, Build Virtual Store

YouTube has added new shopping features for use by creators.

“We’re excited to announce even more updates so viewers can shop for new favorites from the most loved creators,” Aditya Dhanrajani, director of product management, YouTube Shopping, wrote in a Tuesday (April 9) blog post.

One of the new features is Shopping Collections, which allows creators to curate products around a common theme and build their own virtual store on YouTube, according to the post. These Collections will appear in the creator’s product list, Store tab and video description. For examples, the platform pointed to three existing Collections: “Spring Nail Must-Haves,” “Preppy Essentials” and a “Sephora Savings Event.”

The platform has also launched a new Affiliate Hub directly in the YouTube app, the post said. This feature helps Shopping creators plan their next shoppable video by finding a list of Shopping partners, commission rates, promo codes and product sample offers.

A third new feature allows all Shopping creators to tag their own products and merchandise across multiple videos at once, per the post. This feature builds upon one that was launched in 2023 for affiliate shopping creators and is designed to help creators earn more revenue from older content in their video library.

YouTube has also expanded its list of integrated platforms to include Fourthwall, which helps creators connect their shop on that platform to YouTube Studio, according to the post.

“We know that people come to YouTube every day to connect with the things and creators they love, so we hope these new YouTube Shopping features make that journey even easier for creators and viewers,” Dhanrajani wrote in the post.

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that 43% of consumers browse social media to find goods and services.

YouTube’s longer video format is effective for showcasing products requiring demonstrations, contributing to purchases in categories like appliances, home furnishings and pet products, according to “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Monetizing Social Media,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and AWS collaboration.

In another recent addition to its platform, YouTube said in March that it launched an option called Members-only Shorts that lets creators share content only with their subscribers.