YouTube and Shopify are now allowing all eligible Shopify Plus and Advanced merchants in the US to sign up for YouTube Shopping's affiliate program through the Google & YouTube app on Shopify. This update will make thousands of brands available for creators to tag in shopping content across YouTube.
Shopify and YouTube originally partnered in 2022 to let merchants sell their products on YouTube via livestreams, videos, and store tabs, and the two companies are now extending their collaboration.
What is the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program?
YouTube launched its Shopping Affiliate Program in July 2023. The program allows creators to earn commissions by promoting products through affiliate links directly on the platform. Initially it was only available to select creators, but over the past year, they've slowly loosened the eligibility requirements.
Today, the requirements are that a YouTuber needs to be located in the US or Korea, a member of the YouTube Partner Program, have more than 10k subscribers, and not be a music channel or kids channel.
For Creators: They now have access to thousands of more independent brands to promote through the program, which was previously limited to select larger brands.
For Sellers: Shopify merchants have a new way to reach audiences on YouTube through affiliate collaborations with creators. Merchants can oversee the program, content and product analytics via Google Merchant Center.
Additionally, Google added a new Chrome extension that enables US creators in the affiliate program to save products while browsing a Shopify merchant's website, making it easier to tag the products in a video later. Creators can also discover how much they would earn from promoting the product in their YouTube videos without leaving their Shopify site.
A much needed and long overdue partnership!
TikTok Shop launched in the US in Sep 2023 and already boasts more than 500k merchants on its platform less than a year later, which TikTok Creators can earn commission by promoting their products.
There are currently more than 28k merchants on Shopify Plus and over 1M non-Plus Shopify stores in the US — of which Shopify doesn't provide an exact breakdown of how many merchants are on the Advanced Plan. However either way, this partnership with Shopify quickly helps catch YouTube up to TikTok in terms of affiliate product selection for their creators, and helps keep YouTube creators from jumping ship to TikTok in order to have access to more products to promote.
Honestly, this Shopify + YouTube Affiliate partnership is a match made in heaven for creators and merchants.
Merchants can follow the steps here to join the YouTube Shopping affiliate program.