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YouTube has tapped Amazon.com Inc. as its newest affiliate partner in YouTube Shopping, part of the video giant’s push to prioritize e-commerce as one of its next big bets.
YouTube creators can now seamlessly tag Amazon products in their videos and livestreams, driving more business directly to the enormous global marketplace while taking a cut from sales.
“It’s the biggest online retailer in the world coming together with the most-used application on the internet,” YouTube Shopping chief Travis Katz said in an interview.
He described e-commerce as Alphabet Inc.’s next strategic swing — comparing it with major long-term investments the tech giant has made in podcasting, where YouTube is now the most popular service in the US, and in the living room, where YouTube has become synonymous with modern-day television.
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“Video has completely changed the way people shop,” Katz said, noting that consumers now often trust creators more than traditional salespeople. “In the old days, we used to browse store windows. Today, people browse videos.”
When shopping on YouTube started four years ago, the experience mainly featured internet stars selling merchandise to fans through links shared in their video descriptions or comments sections. The company launched its affiliate business in the US in 2024 and has since expanded to India, Southeast Asia and, most recently, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.
YouTube Shopping’s gross merchandise volume — a measure of the value of all goods sold — grew 13-fold globally from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2026, according to Katz.
Though YouTube Shopping has yet to gain the same traction as rival TikTok Shop, more than one million of YouTube’s roughly three million creators who are able to make money on the platform are part of its shopping program today.
They’re selling everything from tech gadgets and home goods to fashion and beauty products to an audience watching 110 million hours of shopping-related videos on YouTube each day, Katz said, whether through product reviews, get-ready-with-me videos, outfit hauls or makeup tutorials.
YouTube Shopping lets creators tag products sold by thousands of sellers, from small brands and direct-to-consumer retailers to the likes of Walmart, Sephora and Home Depot. (Google’s leading artificial intelligence tool Gemini has made tagging even simpler.)
Viewers can click to get more information and buy a product, with creators earning a commission from every purchase. YouTube’s shopping tags drive about twice as much engagement as an affiliate link buried in a video description, making it much easier for creators to earn commissions, Katz said.
Until now, creators couldn’t easily tag Amazon products, despite the company being one of YouTubers’ most-requested partners.
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TikTok cut its own deal with Amazon two years ago, letting users shop for Amazon products through ads without leaving the TikTok app. Though YouTube may have some catching up to do, Katz said it’s “pretty uniquely positioned” to excel at e-commerce in a way that’s different from more traditional social media platforms.
“We’re the second-largest search engine in the world, so people are using YouTube for research in a way that they don’t use other platforms, and being part of the Google universe, we can leverage things like Gemini to build interesting experiences,” he said.
By Alexandra S. Levine
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