YouTube prepares for holiday season with new features for shoppable videos

On YouTube, ’tis the season for ecommerce product rollouts. Creators who upload shoppable videos can now take advantage of several new features, including an interface that adds timestamps to shoppable links.

“Your fans could be shopping right now,” wrote YouTube team member Jessie in a post that introduces the platform’s new features. To faciliating conversions that originate from its videos, YouTube is making sure that retail links pop up at the most appropriate times. Creators who share shoppable videos can timestamp those links via the YouTube Studio. Precise link timing will prompt viewers to buy specific items as they appear on screen.

For now, timestamped shopping links are only available on long-form YouTube videos. The platform has experimented with shoppable Shorts, but its short-form monetization program is still in its early days.

YouTube has rolled out a few other shopping features in addition to its timestamps. With the holiday season on the horizon, the platform is making some additions to its burgeoning affiliate marketing program. A bulk tagging tool lets users find products across all of their videos and update them in batches. For sellers looking to pull detailed data, an Analytics tab offers revenue trends for videos that are part of the affiliate program.

It’s a good time for YouTube to make these changes.

As the platform boosts its ecommerce operation, new findings are revealing the connection between holiday shopping and digital platforms. The research comes from Shopify, the company known for facilitating creator stores and other digital retail ventures.

As part of a thorough report about holiday shopping habits, Shopify detailed the buying preferences of Gen Z consumers. 18-t0-29-year-old shoppers are defined as the most “resilient spenders,” since 37% of them plan to spend more on holiday shopping than they did last year. That’s the highest percentage among all age groups.

As you might expect, much of that increased spending is coming on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. 48% of them said they would purchase at least some of their gifts via social media. The average among all age groups is closer to 33%.

The takeaway is clear: Digital platforms have an opportunity to greatly increase their respective slices of the retail pie. YouTube, for its part, is ready to capitalize.