YouTube has announced the official launch of the YouTube Shopping affiliate program in India, a strategic move to raise the bar on the shopping experience for Indian consumers. It will further open up new opportunities for creators to diversify their earnings and allow viewers to have seamless product discovery through their favorite content creators. It will begin first with a collaboration with two of the largest e-commerce players in India: Flipkart and Myntra.
The YouTube Shopping affiliate program is all about equipping the eligible creator to tag products in their videos, thus facilitating viewers to buy directly from the retailer’s website. This new feature marks a dramatic turn in how creators can make money from their contents while increasing viewer engagement. On the launch of the full affiliate program, creators will take 100% of the sales commission initially, although Youtube says it will introduce a revenue-sharing model soon.
Travis Katz, General Manager and Vice President of Shopping at YouTube, underlined the program’s potential while announcing the programme: “The global success of YouTube Shopping-with more than 30 billion hours of shopping-related content being viewed on the platform in 2023 alone-only proves the power of connecting creators and viewers with brands in new exciting ways. We’re excited to bring this momentum to India with the launch of the YouTube Shopping affiliate program alongside Flipkart and Myntra.” Katz said.
The YouTube Shopping affiliate program extends other shopping features already available through YouTube, which enable eligible creators to tag their own merchandise and drive traffic to their stores. The expansion of new monetization options really gives creators an end-to-end suite to engage and grow on the platform. Other monetization avenues include ad revenue, YouTube Premium subscriptions, channel memberships, and fan-fueled features like Super Thanks, Super Chat, and Super Stickers.
Digital video is increasingly flexing its muscle as a medium of commerce. Brands are only slowly waking up to the fact that creating relationships with customers based on great video stories is important. Flipkart and Myntra have both leveraged video commerce over the last couple of years in different ways, firing up their initiatives: Myntra Minis and Flipkart’s Affluencer Program, respectively. Further, Ravi Iyer, Senior Vice President at Flipkart, exemplified the vision in the YouTube Shopping affiliate program: “With over 500 million registered customers, Flipkart and Myntra understand the changing need to shop among a diverse customer base. With this program, we’re strengthening our effort in making the customer journey seamless towards discovering products through creators on YouTube.”.
A Booming Digital Landscape
This is part of launching such an education program when digital commerce is getting deeply ingrained in Indians’ daily lifestyles. As the report ‘e-Conomy India’ cited, household consumption is set to double by 2030, underlining the requirement for a strong digital infrastructure. While digital video becomes an intrinsic part of the viewers’ lives to seek entertainment and inspiration, YouTube’s diverse creator ecosystem offers an interactive medium through which audiences discover new products.
That indeed has been the investment in the creator ecosystem by YouTube, and its new revenue-sharing model has given rise to a thriving creator economy. More than 110,000 channels in India have more than 100,000 subscribers, marking it as one of the favorite destinations among creators for December 2023. This report further illustrates that 65% of Indian consumers consider YouTube creators more trustworthy than traditional celebrities-a trend very high in the non-metro areas at 84%.
Ajay Vidyasagar, Regional Director for YouTube APAC, is rather bullish on the future of shopping on the platform: “We’re excited by the possibilities that video can unlock to make the shopping journey richer and more engaging. By connecting creators with their audiences, we aim to create a vibrant marketplace that benefits everyone involved.”.
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Conclusion
The launch of the YouTube Shopping affiliate program in India can mark a breakthrough for digital commerce, opening up new avenues for creators in earning from their content, while making shopping seamless for viewers. In fact, YouTube is sure to keep up its expansion in India, building greater connections among creators and audiences as it shapes the future of online shopping. While YouTube is exploring other partnerships, apart from Flipkart and Myntra, the company aims to provide an end-to-end ecosystem for shoppers where content consumption and online shopping interplay, helping both creators and consumers in this growing Indian market.
