Shopify partners with YouTube to shore up sales from content creators

A YouTube logo on a T-shirt worn by a person in San Bruno, Calif., on April 4, 2018. (Jeff Chiu / AP)

Shopify Inc on Tuesday announced a partnership with Alphabet Inc's YouTube to allow merchants to sell through the video platform, as the Canadian company looks to tap into the growing number of content creators launching their own e-commerce stores.

The partnership, which builds on an existing one with Google, will allow merchants to integrate their online stores with YouTube, which reaches over two billion monthly users.

Shopify, which makes tools for merchants to set up their online stores, in June launched new features to help its clients sell to other businesses and on Twitter in a bid to counter a post-pandemic slowdown in online shopping.

The company lost its prime spot as Canada's most valuable company and its shares have lost more than three quarters of their value so far this year as consumers return to stores.

Shopify's director of product, marketplaces and creators, Amir Kabbara, said the partnership with YouTube would help boost conversion rate and in turn the gross merchandise volume, a key success metric, for the company.

Merchants can tag and pin products during live streams, show a curated list of products in a product shelf below on-demand videos and add a store tab under their YouTube channel to feature their products.

Shopify, which has also partnered with TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, said it saw orders placed through such partner integrations quadruple in the first quarter of the year.

Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber