The news: YouTube added Amazon to its US shopping affiliate program, letting creators link to Amazon products from their content—including Shorts, long-form videos, and livestreams—and earn commissions on sales.

Amazon will also give YouTube a “curated catalog” of popular products that creators can tag. Videos that use YouTube Shopping product tags earn 110% more product clicks than description links on their own, per YouTube.

The program is available to eligible US creators who are signed up to YouTube’s shopping affiliate program, the YouTube Partner Program, and Amazon’s influencer program.

Why it matters: The new offering supports a direct revenue stream for creators and brings Amazon into one of the largest video platforms, covering connected TV (CTV) and mobile.

• For brands: Native product tags remove friction between consumers seeing influencer recommendations and making a transaction.
• For Amazon: Expanding commerce media beyond its own site can capture demand generated by YouTube creators and let shoppers start their journey off-site.
• For creators: YouTube’s ability to automatically spot eligible Amazon products in existing videos and tag them means creators can monetize evergreen content without manually updating each video.

By collapsing the gap between creator content and commerce, YouTube also strengthens its position against TikTok’s closed-loop shopping model, without having to build an entire commerce stack itself. Only one-quarter of US social buyers have used YouTube to make a purchase in the past 12 months, compared with 70% on TikTok, per a Bazaarvoice and EMARKETER survey.

We expect US retail social commerce sales will surpass $100 billion for the first time in 2026, reaching $102.68 billion. Bringing Amazon into its affiliate program gives YouTube a retailer with inventory depth to capitalize on that growth, as well as an asset TikTok doesn’t have—two-day shipping.

Implications for brands: YouTube is getting access to Amazon’s massive product collection and purchase intent, while Amazon gets a storefront inside a global video environment. This makes creator content more capable of working as performance media instead of just an awareness driver.

It could also make creator partnership outcomes easier for brands to measure by connecting tagged products to clicks and purchases, rather than relying on views and engagement. Brands can then use that data to decide which creators, products, and video formats are driving conversions.