Last month, YouTube invited 100 top beauty and fashion creators to its LA office to shop from brands available on the affiliate program and get tips from execs on how to sell in an authentic way. Throughout 2023, YouTube partnered with both Coachella and the NFL to sell exclusive merch, and the company hired creators to drive buzz around the launch of Google's Pixel 8. What's worked are exclusive drops, as well as concert and sports team apparel, Dolan said.

'It does not come fast, and it doesn't come easy, but when they build an audience like that, they really listen and they have that trust.' '150,000 or 1 million subscribers on YouTube are hard earned,' Dolan said. Instead of leaning on top creators like MrBeast, YouTube is working with a group of tech, fashion, and beauty influencers to drive its shopping efforts. Not every product - or creator - can drive e-commerce sales.

Wooing creators and best practices to drive sales The new affiliate program, which launched in June, lets creators earn commissions when they tag products in their videos, from shorts and long-form content to livestreams. YouTube first began quietly testing shopping tools in 2021 like product pins with a small group of creators. To join as a brand, the company must have a relationship with affiliate networks Rakuten, Impact, or CJ Affiliate. YouTube has over 150 brands as part of the platform's new affiliate program. 'It's basically like a quick review of why this product is amazing,' Dolan said. Shopping shorts are growing a lot faster than shorts are growing.'ĭolan added that shopping content performs best on YouTube when it doesn't look overly staged, or have a high production value, and highlights a single product or brand in a vertical 15-to-30-second short. 'We had over 150 billion views in 2022 of videos with products tagged - shoppable videos on YouTube.

'Shoppable short-form video is on fire,' Dolan said, speaking on a panel about creators and online shopping. Have an account? Log in.ĭolan spoke about how the tech giant is thinking about social shopping and why her team is betting on short videos to drive sales over livestreams. This story is available exclusively to Business InsiderĪnd start reading now.

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