Mumbai: YouTube is fueling the next phase of India’s creator economy by expanding its YouTube Shopping ecosystem and strengthening creator-brand partnerships. With shopping-related watch time growing over 250% year-on-year, YouTube is extending its Shopping Affiliate Program with new merchants and introducing advanced creator tools, cementing its role as a key platform for both content-driven commerce and brand discovery.
Supercharging the YouTube Shopping Ecosystem
Over 200 million logged-in users in India have searched for shopping-related content on YouTube. To meet this growing demand, YouTube has added new partners including Nykaa and Purplle to its affiliate network, alongside existing partners Flipkart and Myntra, offering creators more opportunities to monetize content while expanding product variety for consumers.
With 89% of beauty shoppers in India saying YouTube helps them make confident purchase decisions, the platform is also partnering with Nykaa to launch a program that identifies and nurtures the next generation of beauty and lifestyle creators.
Gunjan Soni, Managing Director – India, YouTube, said, “The next era of video commerce is already being defined by India’s vibrant creator economy on YouTube. We are scaling content-driven shopping from a successful program to a complete monetization ecosystem. By empowering our creators with new tools, offering new engaging formats to our viewers and deepening and forging new partnerships with top merchants, we are cementing YouTube’s role as the leading platform for the next generation of shopping experiences, a powerful engine where authentic discovery and trusted creators directly fuel sustainable business growth for everyone.”
Pratik Arun Shetty, Vice President – Growth & Marketing, Flipkart, added, “Our partnership with YouTube represents a powerful intersection of commerce and creativity – where discovery meets shopping in real time. India’s creator economy is transforming how people engage with brands, and over the past year, YouTube creators have helped unlock a brand new way for lakhs of Flipkart customers to explore, connect, and shop through engaging video content. Considering the festive season drives peak discovery and purchase intent, this ecosystem enables creators to turn inspiration into action, seamlessly. For a marketplace like Flipkart, this partnership reflects the potential for building the future of entertainment-led commerce in India – where content, community, and commerce come together to make shopping online more relevant and joyful.”
Deepash Jain, VP Marketing, Myntra, said, “Our association with Youtube continues to be strong and rewarding, unlocking exciting opportunities at the intersection of creators, content and commerce. Our creator collaborations on Youtube have grown 3X in the last one year. The momentum is translating into a meaningful engagement across categories with Beauty and Fashion at the epicentre driving a growing share of new customers. This reflects social-led commerce’s evolving role in fostering authentic discovery and inspiration-led shopping.”
A Nykaa spokesperson said, “Nykaa has long believed in content-led commerce, putting creators at the center of how we connect with consumers. Many of them have been brand advocates from the very beginning, helping us pioneer how beauty is discovered in India. Collaborating with YouTube Shopping allows us to build on this approach and reach audiences in more authentic, meaningful ways.”
Suyash Katyayani, Co-Founder & CTO, Purplle, added, “Our collaboration with YouTube Shopping is anchored in a shared vision to make beauty discovery engaging, content-driven, and impactful. YouTube’s unparalleled reach across India allows us to connect with consumers at scale and translate engagement into measurable business growth. We’re proud to partner with YouTube, blending content and commerce to create a seamless, trusted shopping experience. Together, we’re shaping a model where creators inspire, consumers discover, and brands grow, driving the next wave of digital commerce in India.”
New Tools to Power the Creator Economy
To enhance creator monetization, YouTube has introduced an AI-powered system that automatically displays product tags at key video moments and will soon enable automatic identification and tagging of all eligible products.
Since launch, the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program has seen strong adoption, with over 40% of eligible Indian creators enrolled and over 3 million videos tagged with affiliate products.
Strengthening Creator–Brand Partnerships
Recognizing that 85% of Indian viewers find creator-brand collaborations authentic, YouTube is launching new initiatives to make partnerships more effective and measurable. These include:
- A new flexible format allowing creators to insert and replace branded segments in videos.
- YouTube Shorts links that connect brand deals to direct traffic and conversion data.
- A Creator Partnerships Hub within Google Ads to help brands discover creators and integrate authentic content into their marketing through Partnership Ads.
YouTube also continues to host Creator Collective: Brand Edition events to foster collaborations between brands, agencies, and creators.
Through these efforts, YouTube aims to fuel sustainable business growth for creators, partners, and advertisers—turning authentic content into commerce and driving the next wave of India’s creator-led digital economy.
