YouTube has partnered with Shopify so creators and merchants can showcase products across both platforms. Eligible creators can now link their Shopify store to their YouTube channel and leverage Shopify’s real-time inventory syncing. Additionally, U.S. creators can enable onsite checkout, allowing visitors to complete purchases without leaving YouTube. Implementation is accessible through the Shopping tab in YouTube Studio. In addition, beginning next week YouTube will add shopping to its Explore tab, featuring goods from the U.S., Brazil and India, with additional countries to roll out later this year.

“To make it easy for creators to keep doing what they do best, we’ve introduced new tools within YouTube Studio’s ‘Shopping’ tab so that creators can easily manage how their products are tagged and appear across their channel,” YouTube shopping product VP David Katz wrote in a blog post introducing the new features.

“Creators spend a lot of time building a business and developing their products, so we want to make it even easier for them to connect and manage their stores,” Katz added.

“We believe creators are the next generation of merchants, and YouTube has been a longtime leader in powering this new cohort of entrepreneurs,” Shopify VP product Kaz Nejatian explained, as quoted by Variety.

The Google video subsidiary is also enabling access to live shopping features for all eligible creators. This includes the ability to tag products to a live stream directly from the Live Control Room. At the TV Upfronts in May, YouTube talked-up dual-stream live shopping and promoted “live redirects,” which allow creators to start a live shopping stream on YouTube then port their viewers over to a brand channel to finish watching.

The new features debut “as YouTube has been working to transform its platform into more of a shopping destination with product launches like shoppable ads or more recently, the ability to shop directly from live streams hosted by creators,” TechCrunch writes, noting that “a few weeks ago, the company teased upcoming features that it claimed would make it easier for viewers to discover and buy from brands.”

“Live shopping is popular in countries like China, and platforms including TikTik, Facebook, Pinterest, and eBay have introduced similar features in other regions, hoping live shopping will stick,” writes The Verge. Results have been mixed, and “even TikTok — where product recommendations go viral and sell out overnight — is reportedly scaling back its live shopping expansion in Europe and the U.S., where uptake is apparently lagging.”