YouTube is extending its online shopping affiliate service to India in partnership with Walmart-owned e-commerce players Flipkart and Myntra, as the Google-owned video platform seeks to advance its shopping ambitions.
The launch comes in the middle of festival sales season, considered to be the most crucial period for e-commerce platforms.
Eligible content creators on YouTube can tag and promote products in their videos, allowing viewers to purchase items through links to Flipkart and Myntra. Viewers will be able to see details like price and availability in the video's description section and ‘Product’ section. The service plans to add more information in the future.
Creators who are part of YouTube's Partner Program and have more than 10,000 subscribers will be able to join the affiliate programme. They will be able to recommend products in their long-form and short-form videos (Shorts) and livestreams.
Creators will also have the flexibility to tag products, both in existing and new videos, and pinning them during livestreams, the company said.
This expansion builds on the existing YouTube Shopping feature that allows creators to promote their merchandise by linking their stores to their channels.
The feature will be available across YouTube's apps on mobile, web, and connected televisions.
The company will leverage technologies such as QR codes to make the shopping experience easier on connected televisions, Travis Katz, general manager and vice president, shopping, YouTube told Moneycontrol.
Creator Commission
Creators will be able to earn a commission on the sale of these products. The commission will be calculated based on the price of the products people buy, excluding delivery fee, Katz said.
"The more products that their viewers buy, the higher their commission" Katz said. However, he didn't disclose any specific numbers.
Currently, 100 percent of the commission goes to creators, but at some point, YouTube will take a share of the commission, Katz said.
"It also helps them gain increased visibility amongst brands, which can potentially lead to more ad revenue and brand sponsorships," he added.
Ravi Iyer, Senior Vice President and Head-Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships, Flipkart Group, said they aim to boost the experience and engagement of customers using both the platforms by enabling product discovery through videos by creators on YouTube.
“As a homegrown brand, with more than 500 million registered customers, Flipkart and Myntra understand the evolving and nuanced shopping needs of a diverse customer base. To make shopping engaging and personalized and empower customers to make informed purchase decisions, we have pioneered video commerce on our platforms, covering a variety of categories, including fashion, beauty, personal care, home furnishing and more, with strong engagement with customers across tier 2 and 3 cities.” he said in a statement.
YouTube, the world's largest video platform, plans to add more partners to its affiliate programme in the future.
The move comes a month after YouTube struck a similar partnership with Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Singapore-based Sea Limited, in September. The shopping service is available in the United States, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. YouTube's partners in the United States include Shopify.
Over 250,000 creators have enrolled to the YouTube Shopping programme globally, the company said.
"The incredible global success of YouTube Shopping, with over 30 billion hours of shopping-related content watched in 2023 alone, demonstrates the power of connecting creators, viewers, and brands in exciting new ways. We're unlocking a new phase of product discovery, powered by the strong connections between creators and their viewers" Katz said.
The launch of the YouTube Shopping affiliate program expands the range of revenue streams through which creators can earn money on the platform. In addition to the traditional revenue-sharing models like ads and YouTube Premium, the platform now offers fan-funding options such as Super Thanks, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Channel Memberships.
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