YouTube in late 2020 launched its Shorts feature to keep up with a new generation of competing video services posting short-form content. Now YouTube has added an e-commerce element to Shorts, so customers can buy as the minute-long videos fly by.
The feature, which allows customers to buy products directly from ads running between YouTube Shorts, has been introduced to help platform owner Google keep revenue coming in as the digital advertising world faces a slowdown, according to Financial Times. Shoppable Shorts are live in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Brazil and India, and the platform is experimenting with an affiliate model to pay content creators who sell through them. Beginning early next year, content creators running advertisements on their Shorts feeds will receive a 45 percent share of the advertising revenue.
