In the vast landscape of YouTube, where over 2 billion users engage with diverse content daily, eCommerce brands are discovering a goldmine of opportunities. With a staggering 68 percent of YouTube users citing the platform as a key influencer in their purchasing decisions, the potential for eCommerce success is unparalleled. This is your roadmap to navigating the latest YouTube shopping trends and maximizing your brand's presence.

Accelerate Sales & Market Share: Make your products discoverable

YouTube isn't just a video-sharing platform. It's a dynamic marketplace, drawing over 122 million daily viewers. In fact, Toy brands have figured out how to leverage this powerful channel and are now dominating all other products on YouTube with an impressive 55.3 percent Purchase Intent Rate (PI Rate or the percentage of shoppers who clicked through to at least one retailer option) making them the undisputed stars of YouTube commerce. Beauty is the second most popular category at 5.5 percent, Personal Care is third at 5.4 percent, and Groceries are next at 5.1 percent. Home Care is fifth with 4.7 percent.

For these brands, the key to capturing attention and turning views into sales is to lean into trends and adjust ads to fit the platform. Use MikMak Commerce to ensure your audience has access to a premium consumer shopping experience that creates a seamless path to checkout at any retailer, across all media including YouTube and other social platforms.

See how Bioderma incorporated MikMak Commerce on its websites and social media to provide a frictionless path to purchase across 32 countries.

Beat the Competition: Time YouTube ads right

To stand out on YouTube, eCommerce marketers need to understand how their brand is performing against competitors, track changes in performance, and adjust rapidly. It’s also important to craft entertaining and highly visual content that shows off a product’s value as quickly as possible. Timing ads right also plays a crucial role, with Saturday, Sunday, and Monday emerging as hot shopping days on YouTube with PI Rates of 9 percent, 9.2 percent, and 7 percent, respectively.

Additionally, MikMak’s Shopping Index shows what hours of the day Purchase Intent Rates on YouTube hits its high, as you can see above. Real-time reporting and monitoring consumer, retailer, and YouTube insights become pivotal to saving time and money.

Strengthen Retailer Partnerships: Amazon and Walmart lead retailers on YouTube

Strategic retailer partnerships can boost a brand’s sales. When picking out the right retail partner for your brand, it’s important to follow trends and team up with retailers that your audience connects with. When looking at Purchase Intent Clicks, or in-market traffic, among the top five retailers on YouTube, Amazon leads the way with 38.8 percent. Walmart stands in second place with 30.8 percent. In the third slot, with 18.8 percent, Target is the only other retailer hitting double digits. Instacart and Kroger finish off the top five with 7.8 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.

The MikMak Platform’s closed-loop attribution offers a granular view of media investments, helping brands understand the retailers, touchpoints, platforms, campaigns, and behaviors that drive purchases.

Marketing Best Practices: Craft Compelling YouTube Ads

YouTube, being a highly visual platform, demands ads that not only captivate but also inform. Best practices include using sharp images, quick cuts, and bright visuals to showcase a product's benefits promptly. Try introducing new activities, recipes, and uses for products. Drive engagement with long-form content, such as tutorials or product reviews.

Summary: Your eCommerce Marketing Checklist to Navigate the YouTube Landscape

• Get the basics down. Is your brand utilizing YouTube to its fullest potential? Are Amazon, Walmart, Target, Instacart, and Kroger all available in your checkout options?
• Develop more nuanced insights for consumer relevance. Is your brand’s website utilizing multi-retailer checkout? Which channels are part of their shopping journey? Add the channels and retailers that resonate with your consumers to the mix. Can you expand to new formats? Are you engaging with and utilizing viral videos and influencer marketing as part of your strategy?
• Be agile and quick with your data, and use insights to adjust your creative and advertising methods effectively
• Explore growth opportunities. Check your performance against category (and subcategory!) benchmarks to see how you stack up against the competition. A/B test creative and messaging to see if purchase intent increases.

We're here to help. MikMak helps multichannel brands gain deeper consumer insights to grow and protect market share. Want to learn more? Request a Demo.