YouTube Shopping expands merchant ecosystem and unveils new AI tools

YouTube announced a significant milestone for its YouTube Shopping affiliate program in India, expanding the global partnership with Amazon to India, alongside welcoming new partners, AJIO, Meesho, Snapdeal and Tata CLiQ, which will roll out soon. Together with existing partners Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa, Purplle, Shopsy and Tira, the expansion creates India’s most comprehensive commerce catalog in one place, unlocking an unprecedented breadth of choice for both creators and consumers. Viewers can now discover and make purchase decisions across value marketplaces, major retailers, and specialized beauty brands.

Over the past two years, collaborative momentum with these retail leaders has turned YouTube into a trusted engine for product discovery and purchase decisions: over 450 million logged-in users in India search for shopping-related content1 and Indian shopping-related watch time is up 55% year-over-year2. This milestone arrives alongside strong economic momentum for Indian creators. Average creator payouts in India grew more than 160% year over year from Q1 2025 to Q1 20263. Over 50% of eligible Indian creators are now enrolled in the program4, clocking a growth of 200% year over year and tagging over 19 million videos5.

New AI tools and features that work for creators, viewers, and brands 

YouTube also introduced new features to help viewers research products and help creators grow their businesses.

• We’re launching new capabilities to Ask YouTube to make viewers’ shopping journeys easier. With Ask YouTube viewers can ask questions and follow-ups as needed through an interactive experience, whether you’re on the go or with voice commands while watching on TV. When watching a video that interests them, viewers can ask questions – such as about specs – about the product directly on the video’s watch page.
• We’re updating how tags show up across borders, for those with a global audience. We’ll now show a link that adapts tagged products to domestic deals from regional retailers in local currencies based on where the viewer is located. This ensures Indian creators earn commissions seamlessly from their international audiences.
• With the recently launched YouTube Affiliate Partnerships Boost, brands can seamlessly amplify organic creator affiliate content across paid campaigns, while providing creators with expanded reach and new monetization opportunities. Ahead of the peak shopping rush, Nykaa will leverage the feature to scale authentic creator influence and drive incremental festive sales.
• Ask Studio for Brand Partnerships, rolling out soon, will use generative AI inside YouTube Studio to help creators pitch campaigns and respond quickly to brand briefs.
• Through Creator Partnerships Boost, we are making it simpler for creators to get their channels in front of top advertisers. Soon, once a branded video is published, creators can share partner access via a one-click code, making it easy for brands to evaluate campaign performance and put paid media behind the creator’s organic content.
• We are continuing to test and evolve dynamic brand segments, so creators can seamlessly insert segments into up to 20 long-form videos simultaneously, target by region, and drive engagement with a built-in shelf featuring a direct call-to-action button.
• Exclusive Affiliate Campaigns allows brands to invite creators directly into high-priority campaigns with bonus incentives and higher commission rates, and will roll out in India next year.

This local growth reflects global momentum. Across YouTube, globally, shopping-related watch time topped 40 billion hours in 2025, and gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 13X over two years.

Gunjan Soni, Managing Director – India, YouTube, said, “We’ve crossed an incredible milestone where trusted creator voices, a comprehensive retail catalog, and AI meet at a massive scale. With this expansion in retail partners we are meeting the 450 million+ Indians searching for products on YouTube, with India’s most comprehensive digital storefront in the country. With our creators seeing life-changing revenue, and our merchant partners and brands seeing measurable impact, we’re building a thriving economy where creativity directly leads to commerce.”