Creators double sales on YouTube Shopping in India as the affiliate program expands

New Delhi: YouTube has highlighted four Indian creators utilising its Shopping Affiliate Program and introduced new tools and partners for creator-led commerce in India, as the platform aims to transform product discovery into measurable sales. 

A Google India blog on October 13 profiled Preity Prerna, Manmeet Bhatia, Shadhik Azeez and tech reviewer Vineet Malhotra, focusing on how product tagging and data-led planning are lifting conversions. 

The creator showcase follows YouTube’s October 10 update, expanding the Shopping Affiliate Program in India, with Nykaa and Purplle added as merchant partners. YouTube reported that more than 200 million logged-in users in India conducted shopping-related searches, and shopping watch time increased by over 250% year-over-year. 

The company added that over 40% of eligible Indian creators have enrolled, with more than three million videos tagged with affiliate products.

YouTube is also rolling out AI-assisted tagging that can automatically surface product tags at the moment an item is mentioned in a video, testing automatic identification of all eligible products, and introducing workflow updates such as a Creator Partnerships Hub in Google Ads and links in Shorts for brand deals. The aim is to make creator-brand collaborations easier to execute and measure. 

The four case studies underline how tagging speeds up the path from inspiration to purchase. Malhotra said sales on his channel more than doubled after he began tagging products inside videos, citing a smoother, interactive shopping flow for viewers. 

He added, “YouTube Shopping has changed how we connect with our audience. By tagging products directly in our videos, we’ve made the shopping process smooth and interactive. It not only increased customer convenience but also boosted our channel's sales by over 100%. For creators, YouTube Shopping is the future of content-driven commerce.”

Bhatia reported affiliate earnings up nearly 70% after simplifying product discovery. For her, the game-changer isn't just the ease of linking products; it's the key insights - data that transforms content planning into a powerful, demand-driven strategy.

She said, “What I love most is how seamless it is — I’m not techy at all, but finding and adding links feels effortless. And the best part? My earnings have gone up by nearly 70%, which has been a huge motivation boost to stay consistent with my uploads.”

Azeez said integrating Shopping into his content strategy increased his income more than tenfold and improved viewer experience as items became easy to find. 

“What’s even more fulfilling is how it has enhanced my audience’s experience. My viewers now love that they can instantly find and purchase the products I use and recommend, directly from my videos. Many of them share their experiences in the comments or even send me photos after trying the products I recommend. I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for almost five years, but no platform other than YouTube has ever paid me this much in affiliate commissions,” he commented.

Prerna said the program now contributes about 40% of her average monthly earnings and that viewers describe the experience as time-efficient and trustworthy. 

She said, “The YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program has added a new, meaningful revenue stream, contributing approximately 40% to my average monthly earnings. Viewer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and many say it makes their experience both time-efficient and trustworthy.”

YouTube positioned trust, simplicity and conversion-oriented content as the pillars of growth for the affiliate ecosystem, and said the expanded partner roster is designed to widen the catalogue creators can tag during India’s festive season and beyond. 

The company said these updates are intended to help creators build sustainable businesses while giving brands access to high-intent traffic and improved measurement on YouTube.