YouTube Shopping lets eligible creators connect a store and show products directly on YouTube, including a channel shop, a product shelf under videos, and product links in descriptions.
This guide covers the setup when your product catalogue lives in Google Merchant Center and you want those items available on your YouTube channel.
Check YouTube Shopping eligibility
To promote your own products on YouTube, your channel must meet YouTube's minimum requirements, including:
- You are in the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP)
- Your channel meets the subscriber threshold for YPP or is an Official Artist Channel
- Your audience is not set as Made for Kids, and the channel doesn't have a significant number of Made for Kids videos
- Your channel has not received any hate speech Community Guidelines strikes
Connect your shop in YouTube Studio
Once eligible, you connect the store inside YouTube Studio:
- Sign in to YouTube Studio on desktop
- Go to Earn
- Open the Shopping tab (this only appears when your channel is eligible)
- Choose Get started or Connect new shop
- Follow the on-screen steps to link your shop
You can also do this on the YouTube Studio mobile app via Earn → Shopping → Connect store.
Make sure Merchant Center is ready for YouTube Shopping
At a minimum, you need:
- An active product data source in Google Merchant Center
- The ability to link your product data source to your YouTube channel during the onboarding flow
- After onboarding, you should see the [YouTube_Shopping] destination added/enabled for relevant items in your Merchant Center data source.
Note: Google's Merchant Center documentation refers to "eligible and invited" creators for onboarding offers directly via Merchant Center, so availability can vary by account, country, and rollout status.
Add the YouTube custom attributes to your primary feed (when required)
If your setup requires a YouTube store data source mapping (for example, when a platform or feed provider is supplying products to one or more creator channels), Google specifies four additional custom attributes to include in the primary data source for each product:
Required custom attributes:
- youtube store url
Link to the channel's shop.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/@feedoptimise - youtube store name
Readable name of the channel's shop.
Example: Feedoptimise - youtube channel id
The YouTube channel ID.
Example format: UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - youtube group id
Unique ID in the form <company_id/name>:<brand>
Example format: feedoptimise:feedoptimise
Important warning about youtube group id - Google treats youtube group id as a static identifier attached to a channel once the channel accepts the store linking proposal. Don't change it because you renamed your shop. YouTube may stop locating the associated products.
How to find your YouTube channel ID
- Sign in to YouTube
- Go to Settings → Advanced settings
- You'll see your channel's user and channel IDs (you must be signed in as the channel's primary owner to see this)
What happens after the connection
Once you've connected the store and your products are live, you can start using YouTube Shopping features:
- Your channel shop
- Products shown in video descriptions
- A product shelf under videos, Shorts, and live streams
- Product tagging in content
Troubleshooting checklist
Shopping tab missing in YouTube Studio
This usually means the channel isn't eligible yet, or the feature hasn't rolled out to it. Re-check the eligibility requirements and channel settings, paying close attention to "Made for Kids" flags and policy strikes.
Products not appearing on YouTube
Check these first:
- Feed errors or disapprovals in Merchant Center,
- YouTube Shopping destination not being enabled for items after onboarding
- Incorrect or inconsistent YouTube custom attributes (especially youtube channel id and youtube group id). Also keep in mind that Merchant Center feed processing can take several hours, so products may not appear immediately after onboarding completes.
- Multiple channels need access to the same productsYou can submit repeated youtube channel id fields against the products when you need items available to more than one channel.
Where Feedoptimise fits in
YouTube Shopping adds another destination to your product feed, and with it another set of requirements. Feedoptimise gives you the tools to handle this without manual file editing or developer involvement.
You can use modifiers to add and maintain the four YouTube custom attributes across all products in your feed, with rules that apply consistently every time your feed syncs to Merchant Center. If you run multiple YouTube channels, you set the attribute mapping once per channel and the platform keeps each feed variation separate and accurate.
Beyond attribute management, Feedoptimise lets you filter which products are eligible for the [YouTube_Shopping] destination, enrich titles and descriptions with AI to improve how products appear in your channel shop, and use the built-in reporting engine to monitor feed health and catch errors before they cause disapprovals.
If you need help getting your Merchant Center data source ready for YouTube Shopping, or want the setup handled for you through our managed service, get in touch.
