YouTube Shopping: A New Way for Creators to Monetize Their Channel
YouTube Shopping
Hi there — today we're taking a quick look at YouTube Shopping, a way for creators to generate revenue directly from their own channel.
YouTube Shopping is one of the areas YouTube is investing in most heavily right now, and the feature keeps expanding across major markets. As viewers watch a video, products appear as tags showing details and pricing, and a single click takes them straight to the checkout page.
How to set up YouTube Shopping
First, you'll need to join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP).
Previously, you could only join after reaching 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours on long-form videos over the past year, or 10 million valid Shorts views in 90 days. Those thresholds have been lowered dramatically: you now need 500 subscribers, at least 3 uploads in the past 90 days, and either 3,000 long-form watch hours in the past year or 3 million Shorts views in the past 90 days. With the barrier to entry this much lower, a lot more creators are giving it a try.
Next, head to "YouTube Studio" → "Earn" → "Shopping" → "Connect store" to link your store.
And you're not limited to just one — you can connect multiple stores. Once connected, a Store tab automatically appears on your channel, like this:
Beyond the products that display automatically once your store is connected, you can also customize the lineup. Go to "Earn" → "Shopping" and click the "Select products yourself" button to curate and arrange up to 30 products.
When you upload a Short or a regular video, you can tag products right away using "Tag products" in the details tab.
For videos you've already uploaded, open "YouTube Studio", go to the video's "Details", and click "Products" to attach any product you like.
For live streams, click the "Stream" tab, then the "Shopping" tab below the preview to add products ahead of time. Once you add product tags, a shopping list is displayed separately at the top of the live chat. Here too, you can add up to 30 products. You can also pick one product — your best seller, or the one with the biggest sales target — and keep it pinned on screen during the stream. To do that, click the product you want inside the "Shopping" tab, then hit the "Pin product" button.
You can find more details in YouTube's official video below.