YouTube shopping should be available this year, according to Neal Mohan, chief product officer (CPO). He also revealed a few of the platform’s other plans for this year.
What would YouTube Shopping be?
Although we might think that YouTube is going to sell things to its users, it is not exactly that. Or is it? Let’s see!
So, according to Mohan’s blog post, the shopping feature would mean that the platform will come with shoppable videos and live shopping.
Thus, shoppable videos will allow users purchase the products in a video directly, without having to leave the page. The channel owners will have the possibility to select the product that will appear there.
As a result, video content producers will be able to “drop new products, unveil exclusive deals, or discuss their latest shopping haul.” So, this means more monetisation opportunities for them.
Although this might sound well for creators, YouTube’s CPO did not talk about any timeline for it
The move might seem interesting, as it might also be linked with the third-party cookies discussion. Google tried already to find an alternative to those snippets that brought a lot of money for the company, but also many problems. These follow users across websites, in order to show them relevant adds and also make them purchase.
So, Google tried again with what it called baskets, in order to get rid of the tracking cookies, after the previous attempt failed. The Federated Learning of Cohorts was less effective, as companies were unable to find out users’ common interests.
What else will YouTube bring?
According to Mohan, the comment system would receive a new feature. Thus, posters will have the option to tie their comments to a specific moment in the video. The platform will link it to the possibility to set channel guidelines the parameters from the very beginning.
So, it hopes this will “better shape the tone of conversations” on their channels, while also reducing toxicity.
One of the big hings that Mohan also talked abut was the Web3 strategy. He mentioned “a verifiable way for fans to own unique videos, photos, art, and even experiences.” This might mean the intention to create its own virtual purchasing system. So, big news from Google, in fact!
