Everything creators needs to know about YouTube's partnership with Shopify

Ready, set, shop on YouTube!

YouTube has officially partnered with Shopify and all features are up and running. This is great news for creators and brands who already have YouTube channels and have products to sell. For brands/creators who don’t, it may be time to reconsider.

With YouTube being host to over 2.1 billion monthly active users globally, partnering with Shopify will have huge benefits for creators and brands who wish to use these new features.

By being able to shop directly on YouTube (US only) or even having direct links to products within videos, live streams and on YouTube profiles, the user journey is greatly improved.

Making buying easier for consumers is key, especially in the fast-paced realm of social media platforms. With less friction and clicks between buying, this could result in fewer drop-offs and therefore more sales.

“For years, creators have built businesses around their YouTube content, often extending their entrepreneurship into building their own brands, but it hasn’t been as seamless to reach their audience with these products directly on YouTube,” said David Katz, VP of Shopping Product at YouTube.

“We’re excited to partner with Shopify to help creators easily bring their stores front and center for their communities on YouTube, who are increasingly turning to them to shop.”

What does this mean for creators?

The Shopify x YouTube integration makes selling on YouTube seamless, with creators being able to put their products directly in front of their viewers.

If creators are discussing their product live, rather than directing viewers to find a link in the description (which many may forget to do after the video anyway), the product link can be displayed with updated information.

This means creators have more opportunities to sell to their community. This can be especially effective during live streams where creators can answer questions in real-time.

How it works

For accounts with over 1,000 subscribers, the integration is ready to be used.

As told by Shopify, merchants can sell their full range of products on YouTube in three ways:

• Live streams: Merchants can tag and pin products at key points during a livestream, and picture-in-picture playback means consumers can watch while they check out.
• Videos: Merchants can show a curated list of products in a product shelf below on-demand videos.
• Store tab: A new tab will be added to a merchant’s YouTube channel, featuring their entire selection of products.

Creators can manage how products are tagged and appear across their YouTube channel by heading to YouTube Studio’s ‘Shopping’ tab.

They can also manage products on their live feeds within the Live Control Room.

How can creators best utilize YouTube shopping for their audience?

As this is a completely new revenue system for creators, here are three tips for creators trying to ultilize YouTube shopping:

1. Build a community

If you want to be able to sell forever, build a community that absolutely love you and your content.

2. Help your community

Focus on helping your community and anything you plan to sell, make sure it's something your audience wants, needs and will find extremely valuable.

Let's use Nike Women as an example. They could help their community by advising on things like:

- How to choose the right trainers for running.

This could be a live stream where Nike employees discuss the benefits of multiple running trainers, how to pick a pair for your style of running and feet placement. People could ask questions in real time and it saves the customer a trip to the shop.

- How to choose the right sports bra.

There are currently 91 results for sports bra on nike.com. Helping women choose the right one for their sport and shape would add a lot of value to viewers.

- Hydration information.

This topic may not be directly linked to a selection of products, however, Nike would be supporting their customers' sporting needs which builds trust and brand awareness.

3. Go live

Going live will help develop a deeper connection with your audience. They’ll get to really know you, and if they haven’t already bought into your personal brand and/or channel, this can help.

Along with YouTube selling via live-stream, TikTok is also trying to get its foot in the door of live-stream selling. Learn more about here.

TikTok also recently released some data around live-selling and a key statistic was that 50% of TikTok users have bought something after watching TikTok LIVE.

Could YouTube have similar results? It will be a missed opportunity if creators don’t test the new features.

How to connect your Shopify store to YouTube

Here are the steps creators need to follow to connect their official store with YouTube to sell products on YouTube:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.

2. In the left Menu, select Monetization.

3. Select the Shopping tab. This tab will only surface if your channel is eligible.

4. Select Get Started. This option will only surface if you haven’t already connected YouTube with a Shopping retailer.

5. Follow the on-screen instructions to link your official merchandise store to your YouTube channel and turn on Shopping features.

Benefits of using Shopify

Shopify is the UK’s biggest e-commerce site; it’s easy to use, has plenty of fantastic features and is affordable.

Shopify stores in the United Kingdom increased 39% year-over-year in 2022 Q1 and there are currently over 130,000 Shopify stores in the UK.

To learn more about Shopify, Honcho has created a whitepaper that discusses the pros and cons from using the platform from an SEO perspective. It’ll give you insights of the power of Shopify and why so many small and global brands use the platform.

Moving onto the Shopify Platform

If you currently host your website with another platform but want to move over to Shopify, you will have to complete a website migration.

Website migrations are complex and time-consuming. However, with an experienced team to support you, they can be smooth and come with huge benefits.