YouTube has announced that it has partnered with Canadian e-commerce technology company Shopify to enable viewers to purchase products without having to leave its website.
The new Shopify YouTube shopping feature wil allow retailers to sell their full range of products via YouTube in three different ways:
- Livestreams
- Videos
- Store tabs
Amid this news, Shopify shares increased ~2.5% on the morning the news was announced.
How will live shopping features on YouTube work?
In a nutshell, Shopify merchants will now be able to sell directly through YouTube. Shopify retailers can tag and pin products at key points during a YouTube livestream, with a picture-in-picture playback feature enabling customers to watch while they check out.
Merchants will also now be able to show a curated list of products in a product shelf below on-demand YouTube videos. A new tab will also be added to merchant’s YouTube channel, featuring their entire selection of products.
What’s really neat is that the hosted Shopify platform acts a retailer’s e-commerce operating system; this means that details including names, images, pricing, and shipping details are seamlessly kept up-to-date across channels. If products sell out or are no longer available, they will automatically be removed from YouTube.
As said by Kaz Netjatian, VP of product at Shopify:
“Commerce today is multichannel, and YouTube is one of the most influential channels on the planet. Shopify’s new YouTube integration will fundamentally change what opportunity looks like for independent brands in the creator economy. We’re thrilled to expand our long-term partnership with Google to push the boundaries of D2C commerce on YouTube.”
