YouTube now has an amazing new feature to sell your official merchandise through the platform. Here’s what you need to know about the YouTube merch shelf.
What is a YouTube merch shelf?
YouTube now has a merch shelf feature that allows creators to display their official merchandise. The feature appears on your video page below the description box. It can show up to 12 products that you can select and organise to your liking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAwDBN4Ldz0
Are you eligible for this feature?
To be eligible for the YouTube merch shelf you need to meet the following criteria:
- Have over 10,000 subscribers/have an Official Artist Channel
- Be a part of the YouTube Partner Program
- Your channel audience is not set as ‘Made for Kids’
- Your channel should not have received any Community Guideline Strikes
Apart from these criteria, your merchandise should also be available in one of YouTube’s supported merch retailers.
When and why should you start selling merchandise?
How will you know if you’re ready to start selling merchandise? Just look at your comments and you’ll get your answer. If your viewers are genuinely asking you to create some designs, or even just quoting lines from your videos, these can be signs to make your merchandise.
Selling merchandise can serve as an additional source of income. Many creators have focused on making merchandise to supplement their expenses. But this does require a lot of initial groundwork. So do your research and gauge your audience interests before you launch your merchandise.
Setting up and organising the merch shelf
- Go to the ‘Monetisation’ tab on YouTube Studio. If your channel is eligible for the merch shelf feature, you will see a ‘Merchandise’ Tab here.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to link your official merch store.
- Once linked, you will be able to select upto 12 of your merch products. You can change the order in which they should be displayed as well.
- This sets the shelf for all your videos.
- If you want to change the order of items for a particular video, navigate to the Monetisation > Merchandise tab of the particular video and organise the items.
- You can now pause and resume the merch shelf feature anytime you want, either for a specific video or for the whole channel, through the Monetisation tab.
The YouTube merch shelf can be a wonderful new way to market your merchandise to viewers. Use this to showcase your favourite items and latest product launches, and skyrocket your earnings!
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