YouTube expands shopping program in India with Nykaa, Purplle and new AI tools for creators
YouTube deepens its e-commerce push by expanding YouTube Shopping in India, bringing new merchant partners and AI-driven creator tools to boost authenticity and monetisation.
- Oct 10, 2025,
- Updated Oct 10, 2025 2:37 PM IST
YouTube is taking its shopping experience to the next level in India with the addition of new merchant partners, advanced AI tagging tools, and programs to strengthen creator–brand collaborations. The platform announced on Wednesday that it has expanded the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program to include Nykaa and Purplle, two of India’s biggest beauty and lifestyle retailers.
The move comes as shopping-related watch time on YouTube has surged by more than 250% year-on-year, with over 200 million logged-in users in India searching for shopping content.
Gunjan Soni, Managing Director – India, YouTube, said, “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. By empowering our creators with new tools, offering new engaging formats to our viewers and deepening and forging new partnerships with top merchants, we are cementing YouTube’s role as the leading platform for the next generation of shopping experiences.”
Creators enrolled in the affiliate program can now tag products from Nykaa and Purplle in addition to existing partners like Flipkart and Myntra. This expansion provides both creators and viewers with a wider range of products and brands to explore.
According to YouTube, 89% of beauty shoppers in India say the platform helps them make confident purchase decisions. To support this trend, YouTube will also launch a new initiative with Nykaa to discover and mentor India’s next generation of beauty and lifestyle creators.
Pratik Arun Shetty, Vice President – Growth and Marketing, Flipkart, said, “Our partnership with YouTube represents a powerful intersection of commerce and creativity, where discovery meets shopping in real time. Over the past year, YouTube creators have helped unlock a brand new way for lakhs of Flipkart customers to explore, connect, and shop through engaging video content.”
Deepash Jain, VP Marketing at Myntra, added, “Our association with YouTube continues to be strong and rewarding, unlocking exciting opportunities at the intersection of creators, content, and commerce. Our collaborations on YouTube have grown threefold in the last year, reflecting the evolving role of social-led commerce in driving authentic discovery and inspiration-led shopping.”
Nykaa echoed the sentiment, saying, “Nykaa has long believed in content-led commerce, putting creators at the center of how we connect with consumers. Collaborating with YouTube Shopping allows us to build on this approach and reach audiences in more authentic, meaningful ways.”
Suyash Katyayani, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Purplle, said, “Our collaboration with YouTube Shopping is anchored in a shared vision to make beauty discovery engaging, content-driven, and impactful. Together, we’re shaping a model where creators inspire, consumers discover, and brands grow.”
To further enhance the shopping experience, YouTube is introducing AI-powered product tagging that automatically displays tagged products at the exact moment they are mentioned in a video. This feature aims to capture viewer attention when engagement is highest. Later this year, YouTube will test automatic identification and tagging for all eligible products mentioned in videos.
The company has also added tools like Product Stickers on Shorts, timestamp-synced tags, and a Chrome extension for easier product saving and tagging.
Beyond shopping, YouTube is also investing in new features to strengthen brand–creator partnerships. These include flexible brand segment insertion in sponsorship videos, direct brand link integration in YouTube Shorts, and a new Creator Partnerships Hub within Google Ads to help brands discover and collaborate with creators more efficiently.
With over 40% of eligible Indian creators already part of the affiliate program and more than 3 million videos tagged with products, YouTube says it is building an ecosystem where content, commerce, and community converge.
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YouTube is taking its shopping experience to the next level in India with the addition of new merchant partners, advanced AI tagging tools, and programs to strengthen creator–brand collaborations. The platform announced on Wednesday that it has expanded the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program to include Nykaa and Purplle, two of India’s biggest beauty and lifestyle retailers.
The move comes as shopping-related watch time on YouTube has surged by more than 250% year-on-year, with over 200 million logged-in users in India searching for shopping content.
Gunjan Soni, Managing Director – India, YouTube, said, “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. By empowering our creators with new tools, offering new engaging formats to our viewers and deepening and forging new partnerships with top merchants, we are cementing YouTube’s role as the leading platform for the next generation of shopping experiences.”
Creators enrolled in the affiliate program can now tag products from Nykaa and Purplle in addition to existing partners like Flipkart and Myntra. This expansion provides both creators and viewers with a wider range of products and brands to explore.
According to YouTube, 89% of beauty shoppers in India say the platform helps them make confident purchase decisions. To support this trend, YouTube will also launch a new initiative with Nykaa to discover and mentor India’s next generation of beauty and lifestyle creators.
Pratik Arun Shetty, Vice President – Growth and Marketing, Flipkart, said, “Our partnership with YouTube represents a powerful intersection of commerce and creativity, where discovery meets shopping in real time. Over the past year, YouTube creators have helped unlock a brand new way for lakhs of Flipkart customers to explore, connect, and shop through engaging video content.”
Deepash Jain, VP Marketing at Myntra, added, “Our association with YouTube continues to be strong and rewarding, unlocking exciting opportunities at the intersection of creators, content, and commerce. Our collaborations on YouTube have grown threefold in the last year, reflecting the evolving role of social-led commerce in driving authentic discovery and inspiration-led shopping.”
Nykaa echoed the sentiment, saying, “Nykaa has long believed in content-led commerce, putting creators at the center of how we connect with consumers. Collaborating with YouTube Shopping allows us to build on this approach and reach audiences in more authentic, meaningful ways.”
Suyash Katyayani, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Purplle, said, “Our collaboration with YouTube Shopping is anchored in a shared vision to make beauty discovery engaging, content-driven, and impactful. Together, we’re shaping a model where creators inspire, consumers discover, and brands grow.”
To further enhance the shopping experience, YouTube is introducing AI-powered product tagging that automatically displays tagged products at the exact moment they are mentioned in a video. This feature aims to capture viewer attention when engagement is highest. Later this year, YouTube will test automatic identification and tagging for all eligible products mentioned in videos.
The company has also added tools like Product Stickers on Shorts, timestamp-synced tags, and a Chrome extension for easier product saving and tagging.
Beyond shopping, YouTube is also investing in new features to strengthen brand–creator partnerships. These include flexible brand segment insertion in sponsorship videos, direct brand link integration in YouTube Shorts, and a new Creator Partnerships Hub within Google Ads to help brands discover and collaborate with creators more efficiently.
With over 40% of eligible Indian creators already part of the affiliate program and more than 3 million videos tagged with products, YouTube says it is building an ecosystem where content, commerce, and community converge.
For Unparalleled coverage of India's Businesses and Economy – Subscribe to Business Today Magazine