YouTube Brings Amazon Into Its Shopping Affiliate Program

Quick Facts

YouTube announced August 27 that Amazon has joined its Shopping Affiliate Program in the U.S., allowing creators to tag Amazon products in Shorts, long-form videos, and livestreams.
YouTube Shopping’s gross merchandise volume grew 13-fold globally from Q1 2024 to Q1 2026, according to YouTube Shopping VP Travis Katz.
More than one million of YouTube’s roughly three million monetizing creators are already enrolled in its shopping program.

YouTube confirmed on August 27 that Amazon has joined its Shopping Affiliate Program in the United States. The deal lets eligible creators tag Amazon products directly inside Shorts, long-form videos, and livestreams for the first time.

Before the partnership, creators had to paste Amazon affiliate links into video descriptions. YouTube’s shopping tags drive about twice as much engagement as a description link, according to Travis Katz, VP and GM of YouTube Shopping.

“It’s the biggest online retailer in the world coming together with the most-used application on the internet,” Katz told Bloomberg.

The mechanics are straightforward. Creators must be enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program and the YouTube Shopping affiliate program, and must hold an active Amazon Influencer Program or Amazon Associates account. Once a creator links their YouTube channel to that Amazon account, they can begin tagging products. YouTube can also automatically identify eligible Amazon products through autotagging when creators enable the feature.

Commissions average between 2% and 4% of the sale price and will be paid monthly through creators’ existing AdSense accounts. Only one YouTube channel per Amazon account qualifies, and tags are visible globally, with international purchases potentially routed to local Amazon storefronts.

Amazon will supply YouTube with a curated catalog of trending and frequently requested products as part of the integration. Creators whose accounts were linked before September 2024 must redo the linking process under the updated system.

The timing reflects real momentum. YouTube Shopping’s GMV grew 13-fold globally between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2026. Viewers watch 110 million hours of shopping-related content on YouTube each day.

Katz framed e-commerce as Alphabet’s next major strategic bet, comparing it to the company’s earlier pushes into podcasting and living room viewing. YouTube now claims to be the most popular podcast platform in the U.S., with more than one billion people watching podcast content on the platform monthly.

“Video has completely changed the way people shop,” Katz said. “In the old days, we used to browse store windows. Today, people browse videos.”

The move puts YouTube in more direct competition with TikTok, which struck its own Amazon shopping deal two years ago. That integration let users buy Amazon products through ads without leaving the TikTok app. YouTube’s creator-focused affiliate model takes a different approach, putting product tagging in creators’ hands rather than running it through the ad stack.

The U.S. social commerce market is projected to grow 7.2% annually and reach $1.34 trillion by 2026, according to market data included in YouTube’s announcement materials. YouTube expanded its affiliate program in March 2026 to creators with at least 500 subscribers, broadening the pool of eligible participants ahead of the Amazon launch.

For brands and operators selling on Amazon, the partnership opens a direct path from YouTube creator content to product pages. Shopping intent on YouTube is already high. Katz noted that YouTube functions as the world’s second-largest search engine, with users actively researching purchases before buying.

“We’re the second-largest search engine in the world, so people are using YouTube for research in a way that they don’t use other platforms,” Katz said.

The affiliate program launched in the U.S. in 2024 and has since expanded to India, Southeast Asia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.