A creator is testing a cordless vacuum. As he pulls it out of the box, a button appears on screen. The viewer clicks, lands on the retailer's product page and pays on its website. That is how YouTube Shopping works. Its affiliate program opened in the UK this summer, in Germany in September and in France on October 13, and more than 1.3 million creators have already signed up worldwide.
How does the Shopping button work? Who can tag products? And what should merchants prepare?
YouTube Shopping, affiliate links built into the video
With YouTube Shopping, creators tag products in their videos, Shorts and live streams, and earn a commission on every sale they generate. Until now, most of them relied on affiliate links placed in the video description. The program
started in the US in 2023 and is now spreading across Europe.
There are two ways to take part,
Ecommerce Nation explains. A brand or a creator can connect their own store to their channel. Or a creator can pick products from partner merchants' catalogs and earn a commission whenever a sale is attributed to them. The second model, the affiliate program, is the one now opening in Europe.
YouTube shared a few figures at the French launch,
reported by The Media Leader. The value of sales generated through the program grew thirteenfold between Q1 2024 and Q1 2026, and
creators' commission revenue more than doubled year over year.
How does YouTube Shopping work?
When a creator tags a product, a Shopping button appears on the video. The viewer opens the list of featured products and clicks on the one they want. A long-form video can hold up to 60 tagged products,
according to Blog du Modérateur. On videos longer than one minute, creators can timestamp each tag so it shows up at the exact moment they talk about the product.
The product has to be shown or mentioned in the video, out loud or on screen. Creators don't have to do it all by hand: an AI can analyze the video, its title, description and subtitles, then tag the products mentioned or suggest others from the catalog.
YouTube claims tagged products get
up to 110% more clicks than links placed only in the description, based on markets such as the US and the UK. No conversion figures have been released.
The purchase happens on the merchant's website
This is the point that matters most for a retailer. The click takes the viewer to the merchant's product page, and checkout
happens on the merchant's own website, Google confirms. Final price, shipping, customer service and returns stay with the merchant, who keeps the customer relationship.
Unlike TikTok Shop, where the order is placed inside the app, YouTube doesn't handle the sale. The merchant then pays the creator a commission on every sale attributed to them.
Who can tag products?
Creators must be members of the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube lowered the subscriber threshold to 500 at the end of March, from 20,000 before, according to Blog du Modérateur. Channels aimed at children, channels with an active strike and channels that break community guidelines are excluded, and so are
music channels and official artist channels.
With a 500-subscriber threshold, a small niche channel can tag products just like a major creator. A hiking enthusiast reviewing gear for a few thousand subscribers now has access to the program.
Three launches, three very different starts
The program has opened country by country in Europe, and the merchant side looks different in each one.
In the UK, YouTube launched with Awin as its platform partner,
according to Makeinfluence, and named retailers such as Boots, M&S, Currys, Wayfair, Debenhams and Etsy,
PPC Land reports.
In Germany, ten retailers were on board from day one: About You, bonprix, Home24, Kaufland, MediaMarktSaturn, Otto, Shop Apotheke, Tchibo, Thalia and XXXLutz,
reports etailment.
In France, no merchant partner has been named. Google only mentions Amazon, described as one of the partners with the largest catalogs in the world, without saying whether that partnership already covers France.
YouTube is aiming for 35 markets by the end of 2026, PPC Land adds. No launch date has been announced yet for Spain or Italy.
Everything runs through Merchant Center
On the merchant side, the program is managed in Google Merchant Center, the tool that already powers Google Shopping, under "YouTube affiliate" in the Marketing menu. In Germany, product data is connected the same way,
GFM Nachrichten notes.
Two settings directly affect what viewers see, according to Ecommerce Nation. YouTube relies on the countries of sale set in Merchant Center and can flag a shipping restriction if the merchant doesn't sell in the viewer's country. Eligible merchants can also reserve some product listings for specific channels, for example to offer a discount to one creator's audience only.
For commissions,
Google's documentation for US Shopify merchants gives an idea of how it works. The merchant sets a default rate, then custom rates if needed. A pending period of 30 days, which can be extended to 50, lets the merchant cancel the commission if the product is returned. Google recommends crediting the sale to the creator if it happens within 30 days of the click.
What this means for merchants
The product feed becomes the creators' catalog. Creators tag products from the Merchant Center feed. A vague title, a poorly filled variant or a product listed as in stock when it's sold out, and the viewer lands on a page that doesn't match what they just saw.
The feed also decides what can be tagged, and when. A product first has to be approved for Google's free listings. For a new product, this takes a few days, then another 24 to 48 hours before creators can see it, according to Google. A product added the day before a video review may not be available in time. And a product disapproved in Merchant Center, for instance because its price or availability doesn't match the landing page, simply drops out of the catalog.
Titles matter even more because YouTube can tag products automatically. The AI matches what is said in the video with products in the catalog. A title that uses the brand and model name the way a creator would say them is easier to match than an internal reference or a generic title.
Commission is an acquisition cost. Merchants set their own rates, not YouTube. It makes sense to think in terms of margin after commission and to start with a few products that are easy to show on video, in stock and profitable enough to absorb the cost.
Sales are measured on the merchant's side. YouTube reports engagement on tagged products, but order details stay in the merchant's own tools, Ecommerce Nation points out. Linking a video to a sale requires clean tracking on the website.
YouTube Shopping's affiliate program is now live in the UK, Germany and France, with more European markets expected before the end of the year. YouTube is also working on bringing product details to the
TV screen.