From the desk of David Utke
Subj: How to sell digital products via the YouTube product shelf – Full tutorial here
Let me breakdown how to create an online store with Fourthwall.com for FREE and link it to your YouTube shopping page.
I’m sure you’ve seen it on YouTube, the product shelf. It’s that section on a YouTube channel where you’ll see products and merch automatically promoted via a YouTube channel. It’s great because it’s a section that’s totally dedicated to promoting your products.
While there are several platforms that integrate into the YouTube product shelf, my personal favorite is Fourthwall.com. Free to use, nice looking checkout pages and can sell digital products, merchandise, and even set up memberships (similar to Patreon).
Understanding Fourthwall’s Pricing
Before we get started, let’s talk about costs. Fourthwall offers two plans:
Free Plan includes:
- Ability to design and sell high-quality products
- Full customization options
- Customer support handled by Fourthwall
- Monthly memberships
- Promo codes and discounts
- Giveaway features
Pro Plan ($15/month) includes:
- $120 in free sample credits per year
- 24/7 priority support
- No fees on digital products
- 100GB file size limit (vs 5GB on free plan)
For digital products, the free plan charges a 5% fee with a 5GB file size limit per product. Compare this to platforms like Gumroad that take 10%, and Fourthwall becomes quite competitive.
For merchandise, there are no platform fees, but you’ll need to mark up from the base manufacturing cost.
Sample credit?
That just means credit to order your own merchandise that you create and sell on your store. At $120 that means you can order a lot of your own T-shirts, mugs and hoodies.
Getting Started with Your Fourthwall Account
Head to fourthwall.com and click the “Start Now” button. You can sign up using Google, Apple, or email. Once you create your account, you’ll land on your dashboard.
Dashboard Overview
The dashboard gives you access to all the key features:
- Orders section – View all orders, donations, thank you messages, and items to be shipped
- Products tab – Create and manage your digital products, merchandise, and bundles
- Promotions – Set up promo codes and giveaway links (these really help drive sales!)
- Memberships – Launch tiered membership programs
- Site Design – Customize the look and feel of your store
- Analytics – Track performance and integrate with Google Analytics
- Settings – Manage domain, checkout options, shipping, and more
One powerful feature is the abandoned cart email functionality. When customers enter their email but don’t complete checkout, you can automatically send them a discount code to encourage conversion.
Setting Up Your Domain
Totally optional, but if you want you can setup a custom domain for your online store so it’s something more brandable than the standard subdomain that Fourthwall gives you.
Customizing Your Fourthwall Subdomain
First, if you want to to simply customize your subdomain and change it from name-of-store.shop.fourthwall.com to nameofstore.shop.fourthwall.com (getting rid of the dashes) or perhaps you want to change the name of your shop all together, you can totally do so:
Customize this by navigating to Settings > Domain and changing the subdomain structure to something cleaner.
Connecting a Custom Domain
For a more professional look, you can connect your own domain name.
While the Pro plan includes a free domain, you can purchase one separately from a registrar like Namecheap and connect it to Fourthwall at no additional cost.
Here’s the process:
- Purchase your domain from Namecheap (you can register for up to 10 years)
- Make sure domain privacy is enabled (Namecheap includes this free)
- In Fourthwall, go to Settings > Domain > Connect Domain
- Enter your domain name and click “Connect Domain”
- Fourthwall uses a service called Entry to automatically configure DNS settings
- Log in with your Namecheap credentials to grant one-time permission
- Enter the verification code sent to your email
The process takes up to 48 hours for full propagation, though it’s often faster. Entry automatically adds all necessary DNS records (A records, CNAME records, MX records) to your Namecheap account.
If you ever want to remove the domain or use it for something else, simply go to Settings > Domain > Remove Domain, then delete the DNS records in your Namecheap account.
Namecheap
Low prices on domain names, low renewal rates, free WHOIS protection and good support.
I use Namecheap for all my domains and use them in my tutorial videos.
Creating and Adding Products
Now it’s time to start selling something. With Fourthwall you can sell digital products, courses, memberships and merchandise.
Adding Digital Products
Navigate to the Products tab and click “Create New Product,” then select “Sell Digital Product.”
You’ll need to provide:
- Product name
- Description (your sales copy – don’t skip this!)
- Product category
- Price
- Files to upload (each file must be under 1GB on the free plan, 5GB total)
- Product photography (up to 4 images to showcase your product)
For effective sales copy, I recommend this structure:
- Opening paragraph that connects emotionally and highlights the tangible outcome
- Bullet points listing key features or benefits
- Closing call-to-action
- Prominent “Add to Cart” button
The product images should clearly show what customers will receive when they make a purchase.
Adding Merchandise
Fourthwall offers print-on-demand merchandise with surprisingly good quality.
To create merchandise:
- Click “Create New Product” and select “Design a New Product”
- Choose between premium quality or cost-effective options
- Select the product type (t-shirts, mugs, etc.)
- Upload your designs for different areas (front, back, sleeves)
- Preview and adjust as needed
The platform handles all manufacturing and shipping, so you only need to focus on design and marketing.
My recommendation: Focus on either digital products OR merchandise to keep your store focused, rather than mixing both.
Setting Up Memberships
Fourthwall allows you to create tiered membership programs directly on the platform. With a membership, you can have private members only video content.
Creating Membership Tiers
- Go to the Memberships tab
- Click “Add Tier”
- Name your tier (Silver, Gold, etc.)
- Set the monthly price
- Add perks that members will receive
Adding Members-Only Content
In the Posts section, you can upload video content and control access:
- Members Only – Restricted to paid members
- Select Tiers – Available to specific membership levels
- Everyone – Public access (requires Pro plan for videos)
You can also create a “Video Series” which function like category pages that organize related videos together. Useful to help convert potential customers to sign up and become a member.
Customizing Your Site Design
Fourthwall gives you decent functionality over the design your website. Allowing you to change fonts, colors and the block sections on your homepage.
Click on “Site Design” in the sidebar to access the page builder. Your site is structured into three main sections:
- Header – Can add announcement bars
- Body – Multiple content blocks you can arrange
- Footer – Copyright text, menus, and optional announcement bar
You can drag and drop sections to reorder them. Available content blocks include featured collections, image banners, text sections, video sections, and more.
The Style tab lets you customize:
- Colors and fonts
- Background visuals
- Logo and favicon
- Border radius
- Product card styling
- Social media links
To add custom pages (like an About page), use the Pages tab to create new pages beyond the default homepage, checkout, and policy pages.
The templates are somewhat limited in customization as Fourthwall is fairly “cookie cutter” but you can adjust padding, button text, and other minor details.
Connecting to YouTube’s Product Shelf
This is where everything comes together. Here’s how to connect your Fourthwall store to YouTube:
Prerequisites
- At least 500 YouTube subscribers
- Be logged into YouTube Studio
Connection Steps
- In Fourthwall, go to Apps > YouTube Product Shelf
- Click “Connect”
- Confirm you want to link your accounts
- Review privacy policy and terms of service
- Click “Continue”
After the initial connection, you’ll need to complete the setup in YouTube Studio:
- Go to YouTube Studio
- Navigate to the Shopping tab
- Click “Setup” to set up a store on YouTube
- Select Fourthwall as your platform
- Click “Select” and accept the terms
- Return to Fourthwall and click “Reconnect”
Your products will be submitted for review. While YouTube says it can take up to 24 hours, it typically takes around 12 hours for products to go live on your channel.
Once approved, your products will appear in the product shelf on your YouTube channel, and you’ll be able to track impressions and clicks in YouTube Studio.
Setting Up Analytics
Want more detailed analytics or perhaps you plan on promoting your Fourthwall store via other means? Well than you’ll want to setup Google Analytics so you know how your store is performing.
To track your store’s performance, connect Google Analytics:
- Go to Analytics in the Fourthwall sidebar
- Click “Connect for Free”
- Log in with your Google Analytics account (create one if needed)
- Click “Continue”
- Accept the terms and conditions
This creates a new property in your Google Analytics account where you can track things like traffic sources, visitor locations, time spent on site as well as page visits and conversion data (if you setup conversions in Google Analytics).
On top of that, YouTube Studio provides specific data about product performance in the product shelf, including impressions and clicks.
Final Thoughts
Fourthwall provides a straightforward way to monetize your YouTube channel through digital products and merchandise. The integration with YouTube’s product shelf puts your products directly in front of your audience, and the platform handles much of the technical complexity for you.
The 5% fee on digital products is reasonable compared to alternatives, and the print-on-demand merchandise system means you don’t need to handle inventory or shipping.
So if you’ve been looking for a feature rich platform to build your online store on, then you’ll simply love Fourthwall.
Namecheap
Low prices on domain names, low renewal rates, free WHOIS protection and good support.
Get your custom domain name for Fourthwall here.
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