The YouTube 'Beauty Festival' is offering users a shoppable experience

YouTube is launching the second edition of its "Beauty Festival," an event promoting beauty products that users can buy live online. As such, YouTube is further embracing the concept of shopping on social networks, while also signing up celebrities for a helping hand.

Gwen Stefani, Hailey Bieber and Ashley Graham are just some of the stars signed up to take part in the YouTube Beauty Festival, taking place June 16 on the event's YouTube channel. This will no doubt help boost the popularity of the platform's new online shopping tools. A line-up of more than 30 celebrities has already been announced, including the actress Tracee Ellis Ross and the model Winnie Harlow. The live event will be hosted by Derek Blasberg, YouTube's Head of Fashion and Beauty, live from Los Angeles.

During the event, users will be able to directly shop the products presented during live sessions, further confirming YouTube's aim to develop tools that let users shop directly via the platform. Given its potential, this trend, boosted by the Covid-19 pandemic, has become one of the central themes for social networks today. The livestream shopping market is expected to be worth some $400 billion in 2022 in China alone, according to some estimates. In particular, the younger generation seems to be the most receptive to this new mode of consumption, especially users aged 27 and under, according to Social Media Today.

YouTube isn't the only platform working in the field. TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have all launched, and continue to develop, features to facilitate purchases directly from their applications.

To maximize its audience, from June 8 until the June 16 Beauty Festival, YouTube is giving users the opportunity to buy the latest Glossier eyeliner pencil directly via YouTube Shorts, the tab dedicated to short videos inspired by TikTok. And it's a strategy that may pay off, given that YouTube Shorts videos generated more than 30 billion views per day in Q1 2022.

With fierce competition between social networks, platforms all are trying to boost user engagement with new tools to meet the latest consumer trends.