YouTube Store: Unlocking a New Revenue Stream for YouTubers

Features Introduction

YouTube Store is a new feature launched by YouTube in 2024, mainly for creators on YouTube to make money. Currently, this feature is mainly targeted at users in the United States. For users, users can only see if a YouTube channel has opened YouTube Store with a US IP address, and users outside the US cannot see it yet. For creators on YouTube, we like to call them a group of people called YouTubers. In the future, as long as the YouTuber meets the conditions for opening a Store, they can apply to open a YouTube Store. There will be a STORE tab in the YouTuber's Channel channel, making it easier for YouTubers to showcase products to their audience.

How to Use

You can display visually appealing products below a video in the STORE or a YouTuber who is eligible for the Store. Users can directly click on the product to redirect to an independent site to place an order, simplifying the shopping process. In addition, opening a YouTube Store also allows showcasing products during YouTube live streams (known as Live Shop) and displaying products in the chat box of the live stream room.

Impact on Brand Merchants

For Chinese brand merchants, the launch of YouTube Store will have a certain impact. Firstly, the number of celebrities on YouTube may increase, providing brand merchants with more localized source materials. Secondly, brand merchants can collaborate with celebrities on YouTube to open their own stores, sell brand products, and open up new sales channels for merchants. At the same time, brand merchants can also consider opening their own channels on YouTube to shape brand image and sell products through content marketing.

Threshold for Opening and Application Process

To open a YouTube Store, you first need to meet the following conditions:

  • Have more than 1000 subscriptions in the past 12 months, and the valid public video viewing time reaches 4000 hours. Or, in the past 90 days, have obtained 1000 subscriptions and the valid public viewing times of Shorts short videos reach 10 million times.

  • The channel is registered as a corporate account, as a Hong Kong or U.S. company entity.

  • The audience group of the channel is not set as 'for children,' and there are no policy-violating videos or behaviors.

  • Enable two-step verification for Google account, have YouTube premium account and AdSense account associated with the channel.

The specific steps to apply for YouTube Store are as follows:

  1. Select Monetization on the left sidebar of YouTube Studio.

  2. Click Apply and carefully read the creator program terms.

  3. If needed, change the country or region.

  4. Apply and associate AdSense.

  5. Wait for review, the review time is usually around one month.

Suggestions for meeting the opening conditions

In order to increase the total watch time of the channel to over 4000 hours, you can improve efficiency by setting up live streams. Live streaming can help accumulate watch time more quickly. If you do not want to do live streaming, you can publish more vertical short videos to gain support from the basic traffic pool. In addition, when posting short videos, pay attention to the aspect ratio being 9:16 and the duration not exceeding 60 seconds.

Overall, the launch of YouTube Store provides more opportunities for YouTubers to make money, offers new ways of cooperation and sales channels for brand merchants, it is a win-win platform.