YouTube introduces new curation tool for sellers

Sellers on the YouTube video platform have a new tool for building their online stores.

YouTube is introducing "Shopping Collections," a new way for sellers to curate products from their own lines or those of other brands. Sellers can pick a selection of products for any theme to turn into a collection which will appear in their product list, "Store" tab, and video description. 

At launch, sellers can make shopping collections on the Studio app on their phone, with the feature coming soon to desktop.

"With spring’s fresh energy comes a wave of new must-have product drops from brands and creators, so as we step into spring shopping season, we’re excited to announce even more updates so viewers can shop for new favorites from the most loved creators," said Aditya Dhanrajani, director of product management, YouTube Shopping. "The future of Shopping on YouTube has never been brighter."

In addition, YouTube is releasing a new Affiliate Hub directly in the YouTube app to provide sellers with information such as the latest list of shopping partners, commission rates and promotional codes, as well as request samples from top brands.

Finally, YouTube is adding e-commerce building platform Fourthwall to its list of integrated platforms.

"We know that people come to YouTube every day to connect with the things and creators they love, so we hope these new YouTube Shopping features make that journey even easier for creators and viewers," said Dhanrajani. 

Over the past year, YouTube has introduced new features designed to make tagging easier for creators and has also expanded its affiliate program. In other e-commerce offerings, YouTube partners with Shopify to enable retailers that use the global e-commerce platform to integrate their online stores with YouTube. Shopify’s YouTube shopping feature allows retailers to sell their full range of products via YouTube in three ways: livestreams, videos, and store tabs.

YouTube recently ranked as the most widely used (93%) online platform among U.S. teens for the second consecutive year in Pew Research Center’s annual survey of U.S. teens. TikTok ranked second (63%), followed by Snapchat (60%) and Instagram (59%).