To strengthen India’s growing creator economy, YouTube on Friday announced the expansion of its Shopping experience by onboarding two new merchant partners, Nykaa and Purplle, alongside existing collaborators Flipkart and Myntra. The move marks a key step in scaling its affiliate program and advancing monetisation opportunities for content creators in India.
The video-streaming platform, owned by Google, noted that shopping-related watch time on YouTube has grown by over 250 per cent year-on-year, reflecting a sharp rise in content-driven commerce. According to the company, more than 200 million logged-in users in India conducted shopping-related searches on YouTube, underlining the platform’s growing role as a discovery and shopping hub.
This expansion, YouTube said, will be accompanied by the introduction of new creator tools and brand partnership programs aimed at helping creators build sustainable businesses. It is also expected to enhance opportunities for advertisers, enabling faster brand-building and higher-intent customer engagement.
Gunjan Soni, Managing Director of YouTube India, described the move as a milestone in the evolution of video commerce in the country. “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 monetisation ecosystem,” she said.
Soni added that YouTube’s focus remains on empowering creators with new tools, offering viewers interactive shopping formats, and establishing partnerships with top merchants to shape the future of online shopping experiences.
The addition of Nykaa and Purplle is expected to further strengthen YouTube’s position in the beauty and lifestyle sector. The company cited that 89 per cent of beauty shoppers in India consider YouTube a trusted platform for making confident purchase decisions.
In collaboration with Nykaa, YouTube also plans to introduce a new program to discover, train, and support the next generation of beauty and lifestyle creators in India.
The YouTube Shopping Affiliate program, which launched in India a year ago, has already seen over 40 per cent of eligible creators participate, resulting in more than 3 million videos featuring tagged affiliate products.
Suyash Katyayani, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Purplle, said that the collaboration is rooted in a shared goal to make beauty discovery more interactive and content-driven. “YouTube’s unparalleled reach across India allows us to connect with consumers at scale and translate engagement into measurable business growth,” he said.
The expansion highlights YouTube’s growing role in merging entertainment and e-commerce, as the platform continues to evolve into a key player in India’s digital shopping and creator monetisation landscape.
