Creators who sell products through the site Teespring will soon see messages in the live chat feature when a user purchases an item from their online store.
In a video on YouTube‘s Creator Insider channel, host Tom Leung said: “If you’re doing a livestream and you use YouTube Merch and it’s connected to the Teespring integration, and someone buys a t-shirt, it’ll be visible to everyone in the chat.
“We think it will help drive awareness and sales, kind of similar to when someone becomes a member in live chat,” he said.
The video also went on to reveal that over 80,000 channels have earned an income through paid digital goods such as Super Chat, channel memberships and merch programmes in the past 28 days.
The number is an increase of 20 percent since March.
Tom added: “We’ve also seen an increase of over 40 percent since January in channels who earned the majority of their revenue from these products – Super Chat, Super Stickers, memberships and merch.
“Since the beginning of March, 2 million viewers have bought their first Super Chat, Super Sticker or membership on YouTube.”
Alongside updates on memberships and merchandise sales, YouTube announced that it has expanded the YouTube Giving donation feature to over 40,000 creators in the US, UK and Canada.
“In fact, a new feature allows campaign organisers to directly link to their fundraisers, so others can join and add it to their own videos,” Tom said.
The rollout forms part of the platform’s work to support coronavirus relief, with YouTube and Google.org also matching $2 for every $1 donated to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the WHO, up to $5 million.
When the Creator Insider video was filmed, the fundraiser had raised over $1.8 million – a total of $5.3 million with the donation matching of YouTube and Google.
At the time of writing, over $5.7 million has now been raised for the cause.
More information about the fund and how to donate can be found on the United Nations Foundation’s YouTube channel.
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