‘YouTube’ To Bring Shopping Feature To Shorts Following The Footsteps Of ‘TikTok’

(CTN NEWS) – YouTube launched the Shopping feature on Shorts with selected content creators in the US currently experimenting with offering products for sale.

The platform, a part of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has added a new feature to Shorts.

YouTube’s short-form video service, created in 2020 to compete with the popularity of TikTok, is a rival app rapidly gaining ground. Users can then purchase goods while they scroll through YouTube Shorts.

#YouTube has announced an in-app #shopping feature for Shorts hence adopting a model similar to that of the rivals #TikTok and Instagram. The in-app shopping feature will allow users to shop for a particular look as they scroll through YouTube #Shorts. pic.twitter.com/QjKc9FTdKI

— Tygo Cover (@tygocover) November 16, 2022

As it fights to retain its so-called creators — people who create content on YouTube – in the face of increasing competition from rivals.

It is also trying new commission programmes for influencers who sell things through video links.

In his first interview since joining the firm six months ago, YouTube Shopping’s general manager, Michael Martin, stated to the Financial Times, “Our goal is to focus on the finest monetization prospects for creators in the market.”

As tech companies scramble to diversify their revenue streams in response to a slowing economy and a struggling digital advertising industry, YouTube is expanding its retail options.

Since the parent firm began reporting its performance separately in 2020, YouTube’s ad sales revenue has decreased and failed analyst projections at each earnings report.

Over the past several years, rivals like Meta and TikTok have also entered the so-called social commerce sector, where customers buy things via social networks in the hope that it will become the future of buying.

According to management consulting firm McKinsey, the sector will reach more than $2 trillion in sales worldwide by 2025.

However, China has seen the greatest success, with customers spending $352 billion on social shopping in 2016.

Martin, who just joined Google from Nike, where he served as head of ecommerce in Greater China, claims that YouTube intends to roll out its two test shopping programmes over the course of 2023.

With a small group of US-based creators, it is now testing its “affiliate marketing” programme, which pays commission to creators who sell things.

An undetermined percentage of each sale is split between YouTube, the retailer, and the creator. Viewers can currently shop through Shorts in the US, India, Brazil, Canada, and Australia.

Starting early in the following year, YouTube will also pay creators 45% of the money it makes from the sale of the ads that appear between videos on Shorts.

YouTube Shorts creators can now earn through a new shopping feature https://t.co/KtlwN4N9rO

— XDA (@xdadevelopers) November 16, 2022

To raise user numbers and engagement in the face of growing competition from TikTok, a more recent Chinese-owned entrant, social media companies are now competing to draw online talent from the same pool of producers.

The interaction between producers and their followers, where a strong personality can drive purchases, is often the key to success in the so-called social commerce industry.

Popular Chinese influencer Austin Li made over $1 billion in sales in a single broadcast on the Taobao shopping site last year.

In contrast to more conventional advertising or paid-placement models, Martin remarked, “It is very much an endorsement model.”

Younger Gen Z users of YouTube who prefer “queryless video-based engagements,” or who do not want to actively search for things are proven to like this method of buying through creator-recommended products, he said.

Shorts are naturally shoppable because that is how they want to consume product information. More than 1.5 billion people use YouTube monthly, exceeding the 1 billion users TikTok recently disclosed.

YouTube has also experimented with live purchasing, allowing viewers to purchase while watching a live video broadcast.

Nut Martin claimed that the company has focused more on domestic consumers due to a lack of overseas success. It is now concentrating on markets where it is well-known, such as South Korea.

Martin predicted “it would take some time before “live shopping” became widely used.”

RELATED CTN NEWS:

Google Maps’ Latest Update Is Great For EV Owners

Apple Watch Can Help Detect a Potentially Life-Threatening Heart Condition: Report