Pixability Unveils 2025 YouTube Retail & Shopping Study Ahead of Black Friday Surge

Pixability Unveils 2025 YouTube Retail & Shopping Study Ahead of Black Friday Surge

YouTube’s 688B retail views this year underscore its growing role as shoppers research deals, compare products, and engage with creators throughout  the holiday season.

November 24, 2025

BOSTON— Pixability (www.pixability.com), the leader in AI-driven advertising and insights on YouTube, today released its latest research report, Retail Strategies for YouTube. Using Pixability’s proprietary retail channel data and aggregated campaign performance benchmarks, the study uncovers what’s working best for retail brands and creators, specifically across the Home, Beauty, Fashion, and Consumer Electronics subcategories on YouTube.

 As the only company certified by Google’s YouTube Measurement Program in both Brand Suitability/Contextual Targeting technology and YouTube Content Insights, Pixability is uniquely positioned to deliver this guidance for marketers and their agencies. Among the most compelling findings of the report are the lists featuring  the top retail creators – including well-known names such as James Charles and Marcus Brownlee – as well as the fastest-growing retail creators, highlighting some exciting unknowns and emerging talent reshaping how audiences shop on YouTube. The report also spotlights the top 10 retail brands and brand videos, outlining a strategic blueprint for retail brands looking to optimize their YouTube presence.

“This is the time of year when retail takes center stage, and YouTube is where they shine,” said Matt Duffy, CMO of Pixability. “Marketers need a holistic understanding of the creators, content trends, and best practices that influence shoppers and purchase intent, and this study gives retail advertisers a 360 view of how  YouTube can work harder for them.”

Key insights from the study include:

• Market size: There are currently over 4.12M retail-related channels on YouTube 
• Creators: Top creators like 5MinuteDECOR and Jeffere Star use strategies like “Shopper-tainment”, honest reviews, and optimizing for short-form video to effectively reach their audiences
• Advertising strategies: Cross-category advertising, particularly across Family & Relationships and Events & Attractions content, was  most effective for driving performance for retail advertisers vs. endemic retail content 
• Organic channels: Top retail brand channels, like Temu and DJI, successfully implement strategic tactics like “POV” storytelling and “gamified” content, while other household names, like Dior and Rolex, utilize cinematic production styles to resonate with their target audiences 
• Ad formats: Retail content showed the strongest click-through rates and conversion rates when running on Demand Gen, while the highest video completion rates occurred on :06s Bumper ads 
• Organic content: These strategies are more critical than ever and YouTube is now the leading destination for AI chatbot traffic
• “Cultural moments”: Capitalizing on seasonality via retail “cultural moments” is  critical; for example, Black Friday delivered 26% increase in views on videos that inform purchase decisions (gift guides, hauls, etc) in Oct. 2024 v. the 9 months prior

About Pixability 

Pixability is the leading AI-driven technology company empowering the world’s largest brands and their agencies to maximize the value of their video advertising on YouTube and CTV. Leveraging its proprietary technology platform and data, Pixability makes every video impression more meaningful by identifying contextually relevant, brand suitable inventory and maximizing cost efficient outcomes. Pixability’s suite of solutions are used by the top media agencies including IPG, Publicis, Omnicom, Dentsu, Stagwell, and WPP Media, as well as brands such as KIND, McDonalds, Salesforce, Lego and CVS. The company is the only YouTube partner certified for brand suitability, contextual targeting,  and content insights, enabling unique solutions for the benefit of brands and their agencies. For more information about Pixability, please visit www.pixability.com or watch a video here.