YouTube Doubles Down on Shopping Focus to Maximize e-commerce Opportunities

Ricky S
3 min readNov 15, 2022

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With a new series of shopping streams and other in-app shopping activations, hosted by some of the most well-known YouTube artists in the app, YouTube is seeking to give live-stream shopping another push in the run-up to Thanksgiving.

According to YouTube, m ore and more people are seeking for a one-stop shop for their gifting as the Christmas season draws near. With From YouTube to You, a collection of videos, livestreams, and shorts featuring your favorite creators, their hand-picked gift suggestions, and special product drops and promotions to help you finish your shopping, we’re thrilled to make the holidays simpler than ever.

During the activity, some of the app’s biggest stars, like MrBeast, Bethany Mota, and iJustine, will broadcast across ten days to highlight different goods and services, and YouTube will also be hosting Shorts Challenges to coincide with the shopping event.

Shopping on YouTube:

This would make in-app purchasing far more accessible to consumers, which could significantly advance YouTube’s commerce goals as it seeks to take use of all available avenues.

In order to increase revenue in the app and provide creators new methods to monetize their work, YouTube has been attempting to increase interest in in-stream shopping. Along these lines, among other things, YouTube’s addition of product tags, “merch alerts,” and AR try-on videos contributed to this transition.

But the trend that it really wants to exploit is live-stream shopping. Following the development of live-stream commerce as a significant driver of in-app shopping activity in Asian markets, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are all putting effort into creating their own live-stream commerce components.

Western fans haven’t been as enthusiastic about in-stream purchases, though, so yet. But with the enormous sums at stake, you can guarantee that every platform will take advantage of any opportunity to popularize live-stream purchasing, with YouTube and TikTok leading the charge to make it a serious trend.

Will that function? Time will tell, but let’s not forget that in China, live-stream shopping is currently responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars in sales.

Live streaming commerce in China:

If social platforms can make live-stream commerce a reality, the potential is highlighted by the $870 billion total eCommerce sales in the US in 2021.

The most recent YouTube push will undoubtedly give it a boost, since some of the app’s biggest stars are sure to draw sizable crowds and introduce them to the process’s potential.

And if it succeeds, that might open up a whole new set of questions for retail firms using the app.

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Ricky S
Ricky S

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