Consumers can expect home TV shopping-type channels to pop up one after the other on YouTube. The Google-owned website rolled out its new money-making machine, allowing brands to have shoppable videos and allowing consumers to purchase products directly through the retailer channels.
Millions of people flock to YouTube everyday not just to watch their favorite artists. The website is also used by people to get more information, learn new skills, and look for products to buy. YouTube wanted to make most of this opportunity and gave brands a chance to reach out to fans and potential consumers through its new channel gadget.
"To shorten the path to purchase and translate video views to sales, today we're introducing a new channel gadget on YouTube that will enable consumer goods brands to connect consumers directly with retailers throughout the entire YouTube experience," the search engine company explained through a post on its blog.
The new gadget found on brand channels will allow shoppers to move seamlessly from browsing the featured products and how-to videos to checking their availability, knowing what stores carry them, compare different prices, and actually purchase the products they love.
The first client of Google to try YouTube's channel gadget is Unilever to market TRESemmé. The hair care product brand already has a big following on the video website and features fashion style setters and celebrities. Users can now click on products in how-to videos in order to see the purchase information. This feature only appears on the pages of brands that have opted in for the service.
TRESemmé provides consumers how-to videos to learn more about hair care and hair styling. So far, the brand has generated over 2.7 million hits on its channel. The shopping process is shortened and made easier for consumers with the new channel gadget.
The channel gadget is powered using Gloto, a company that has collaborated with YouTube before to come up with interactive apps for mobile gadgets.
Google is not the first company to jump into the idea of harnessing the potential of shoppable videos. Last year, Target had a series of interactive videos collectively called "Falling For You." British brands like Ben Sherman and ASOS also tapped similar technologies for its Yuletide and autumn campaigns, respectively.
Neiman Marcus rolled out a music video below that also experiments on the concept of being shoppable. Gucci is currently testing videos for its own marketing strategy.
