YouTube shared some social commerce news during its keynote presentation today during Advertising Week, featuring Tara Walpert Levy, Walmart CMO William White, and resident creator Liza Koshy.
Beginning Nov. 15, YouTube will kick off a seven-day live shopping event, The YouTube Holiday Stream and Shop. It will he hosted by the Merrell Twins and feature other top creators, who will showcase products from Walmart (which worked with TikTok on an hourlong shopping stream last holiday season), Samsung, and Verizon.
During the streams, fans will be able to unlock limited offers, participate in live Q&As and polls, and purchase featured products with a single click. Walpert Levy teased that YouTube has more live shopping events in the pipeline. On June 24, the platform hosted several shopping streams in honor of its first-ever Small Biz Day. (Instagram, for its part, recently rolled out a similar 10-day event for Fashion Month).
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Back in February, YouTube said it was testing new ecommerce tools, which it referred to as an “integrated shopping experience that allows viewers to tap into the credibility and knowledge of trusted creators.” Initially available for on-demand videos, the program is now rolling out for live streams, YouTube said, amid a boon in social commerce precipitated by the pandemic.
The experience enables creators, retailers, and brands to select products that appear in a pop-up overlay on their standard videos or live stream. On VOD, viewers can click to explore product pages, related videos, or purchase options. On live, viewers can click to check out directly on YouTube without interrupting the viewing experience.
These features have been used by Simply Nailogical and Hyram for the launch of their nail polish and skin care lines, respectively. On the retailer front, Sephora, Target, and Walmart have also hosted shoppable streams.
YouTube’s other ecommerce tools include three-year-old, Spring-powered Merch Shelves, which enable creators to sell merch under videos, as well as a similar shopping shelf through its BrandConnect influencer marketing platform. Shopping shelves enable users to shop for products featured in sponsored videos directly from the creator watch page.
You can check out YouTube’s Ad Week keynote in full below:
