Social commerce topic
Ecommerce Sales Channels, YouTube Shopping and Holiday Forecast
Ecommerce marketing is the process of attracting potential customers to your online store through different channels and strategies, says Shopify. This topic gathers what Shopify, YouTube Help and Adobe publish about it. No guide in this topic is published yet. Sixteen are planned, from ecommerce marketing tips to holiday campaigns and shopping habits by generation. We have not tried a store campaign ourselves.
Ecommerce Marketing Channels
Shopify's guide was updated on 3 September 2026. It groups ecommerce marketing into five core channels:
- SEO and content marketing
- Email and SMS marketing
- Paid search and social ads
- Social commerce, which is selling where customers already spend time
- Influencer and affiliate marketing
For repeat purchases it adds three areas. They are life cycle automations, customer segmentation and loyalty. Shopify is a store platform, so its guide reflects its own tools. Figures in it come from other firms and we have not checked them.
YouTube Shopping Steps for Sellers
One channel on that list is social commerce on YouTube. YouTube Help says eligible creators can use Shopping to promote products from their own stores or other brands across YouTube. The order below is paraphrased from that article and was not tried on an account.
- Join the Partner Program Needed for both own products and other brands' products.
- Meet the threshold Your channel must reach the subscriber level for the program.
- Connect your store Do this to feature your own products.
- Tag products Tags can appear in videos, Shorts and live streams.
Other limits come from the same article. An audience set as Made for Kids is not eligible for own products. Active hate speech strikes block both routes. Promoting other brands also needs a channel in one of twelve listed markets, among them the United States, India and Japan.
Holiday Forecast From Adobe
Holiday timing shapes ecommerce marketing plans. On 28 September 2026 Adobe published a US forecast built on Adobe Analytics data from over 1 trillion visits to US retail sites.
| Period | Forecast online sales |
|---|---|
| 1 Nov to 31 Dec | $275.1 billion, up 6.7% |
| Cyber Week | $47.5 billion, up 7.4% |
| Black Friday | $12.9 billion, up 9.2% |
Adobe also projects social media's share of revenue to rise 17% and affiliates and partners to rise 12%. The release text we read does not give the base for either rise. These are forecasts for the United States only.
What is Still Unconfirmed
The YouTube Help article carries no date. Shopify's channel list is a vendor guide and we read no independent test of it. Adobe's numbers are a forecast, so check the final report after the season. We read nothing yet on beauty ecommerce, generational shopping habits or two sided marketplaces, so no claim about them appears here. Always check every platform's current rules before you build a campaign on them.
Where This Topic Fits
This topic sits inside our Social Commerce section, which also explains how TikTok Shop, Meta and Pinterest sell. The next topic covers social selling and shops. A guide appears here the day it goes live and is marked Tested or Checked, as our editorial policy explains. Changes are logged on our change log. Namrata Arora edits this section. To look up a term, use the social media glossary or our site search.
Sources: Shopify on ecommerce marketing, YouTube Help on getting started with Shopping and Adobe's 2026 holiday forecast.
FAQ
What is ecommerce marketing?
Shopify defines it as the process of attracting potential customers to your online store through different channels and strategies. Its guide lists five channels, from SEO and content to influencer and affiliate marketing.
Who can sell through YouTube Shopping?
Eligible creators, says YouTube Help. To promote your own products you must be in the YouTube Partner Program and meet its subscriber threshold. Promoting other brands' products also needs a channel in one of twelve listed markets, India among them.
How big is the 2026 holiday online sales forecast?
Adobe forecasts $275.1 billion in US online sales from 1 November to 31 December 2026, up 6.7% on last year. That is a forecast from 28 September 2026 and not a result.