The Coming Death of the Amazon Affiliate Program

20 replies
OK, I know some of you are already limbering up your fingers ready to jump on a "death of ..." thread, which I calculatedly used to draw your click. But I think you'll want to pay close attention to what Amazon is now doing and the potential long-term impact on its affiliate program.

FYI - I am an Amazon affiliate and have been so a long time. My first commission payment was on October 2, 2000, back when commissions were only paid quarterly.

You probably know Amazon Prime is a huge deal. Amazon is pushing everyone to sign up for Prime and this service has increasingly separated Amazon from Ebay and other online retailers.

You may have also heard Amazon is now rolling out Prime Now, offering fast delivery service. For some orders delivery now occurs within an hour after ordering.

As an Amazon affiliate, this should be exciting news as you can refer buyers to Amazon and also tell them they can buy right now and have a product delivered to their doorstep that day. Conversions should skyrocket!

Here's the problem ....

1. Amazon has rolled out a second "website" for Prime Now buyers to use.

2. Amazon is not paying you any commissions for orders on this service.

Check out http://primenow.com - This Amazon domain is now redirecting to https://primenow.amazon.com. Here, on this Amazon subdomain are the growing number of products available for fast delivery. It is basically a copy of the main Amazon site where Prime members can order products.

Product pages have the order button, product info, reviews, etc., and the domain says Amazon.com.

But affiliates get zero commissions for referred orders. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

How can that be?

If you review the affiliate operating agreement it vaguely say this is the website Amazon pays commissions on:

"Amazon Site" means the amazon.com site or any other U.S. site that is owned or operated by or on behalf of us or our affiliates and which is identified as participating in the Program in the Associates Program Advertising Fee Schedule.
The associates program fee schedule does not mention the PrimeNow domain or subdomain.

Yowsa. That's some clever language. Bet you thought referrals to Amazon.com resulted in commission payments. Nope. Only the portions of Amazon.com specifically mentioned in the fee schedule.

I point blank asked Amazon about the issue and this morning received a clear written response:

"Amazon PrimeNow orders are not eligible for referral fees."
Bottom line: the service Amazon is aggressively pushing and rapidly expanding pays $0.00 for your referrals.

Gazing into my crystal ball, fast delivery is the wave of the future for Amazon. Right now a tiny number of products are available, and the service is not available in every city.

But you know, and I know, and Amazon's well-known history makes clear - small starts by Amazon eventually result in massive, industry disruptive impacts. Just ask the bankrupt bookstore owners who originally laughed at the small number books Amazon offered.

Going forward ...

- Expect a huge PrimeNow push this Christmas. Even bigger next Christmas.

- You may not be losing commissions now (if you even know), or the amount is small.

- As the fast delivery service expands you will lose more and more commissions.

- You should be pissed that Amazon, or any merchant, would intentionally create a new subdomain and use tricky, non-obvious legal terms to avoid paying you commissions.

- I already suggested to Amazon that affiliate commissions be paid on orders where the buyer elects to use the PrimeNow fast delivery service. You should. too. As in right now, log into your Amazon affiliate account and send a polite message requesting that affiliates be paid for PrimeNow orders.

It's kind of like voting. If you don't make your voice heard to Amazon don't be complaining on the forum in the future about the death of your Amazon affiliate sites because your work is paying you nothing.

.
#affiliate #amazon #coming #death #program
  • Profile picture of the author FayeAnne
    It seems odd to me that Amazon would have bothered to create the new reporting system for affiliates if their goal is to terminate the program altogether.

    I'm not saying you aren't right. I just don't know really what to think.
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  • Profile picture of the author kilgore
    Yes... Another "death of..." thread. Can we just stop with these already?

    That said, you do raise some interesting points. From my vantage, it looks like Amazon is trying to compete with local brick-and-mortar stores -- drug stores, convenience stores, grocery stores -- rather than trying to redirect all of its traffic to a new website just so it doesn't have to pay commissions anymore.

    Clearly Amazon is going to do what's best for Amazon, but if their goal is to reduce the fees they're paying to their affiliates all they have to do is change their operating agreement: something they do all the time anyway.

    In a nutshell, this looks like something to watch, but nothing to panic about. I have a call with my Amazon affiliate rep today and I'll be sure to ask her about it and let her know my concerns. If I learn anything of use, I'll post here.
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Originally Posted by FayeAnne View Post

    It seems odd to me that Amazon would have bothered to create the new reporting system for affiliates if their goal is to terminate the program altogether.

    I'm not saying you aren't right. I just don't know really what to think.
    I doubt they'd ever terminate the program entirely. But if Brian's fears come true, and Amazon a) expands the quick delivery to more large population centers and more products, and b) creates a massive push to get people into that part of the program, it will make it much harder for associates to make money. Thus making the program much less attractive.

    But Amazon won't kill the program; they would still like the incremental income from associate referrals they may not have gotten otherwise.
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    • Profile picture of the author FayeAnne
      Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

      I doubt they'd ever terminate the program entirely. But if Brian's fears come true, and Amazon a) expands the quick delivery to more large population centers and more products, and b) creates a massive push to get people into that part of the program, it will make it much harder for associates to make money. Thus making the program much less attractive.

      But Amazon won't kill the program; they would still like the incremental income from associate referrals they may not have gotten otherwise.
      But why would it make it harder for associates to make money? Isn't it just a matter of Amazon allowing affiliates to receive commissions for items in the quick delivery program? Am I missing something?
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  • Profile picture of the author kilgore
    I just got of the phone with the Amazon rep. Here's a summary of what she said:
    1. The vast majority of the traffic to Prime Now is going through their mobile Prime Now app, so there shouldn't be much affiliate traffic going there anyway.
    2. They did, however, launch a website and as kindsvater stated above, affiliates do not currently get commission from sales on that website.
    3. That said, they do have plans to integrate the affiliate program into the Prime Now website, so that affiliates would get credit for their referrals. Unfortunately, she had no timetable for when this would be done. (She seemed to indicate that this whole initiative was moving very, very quickly.)

    Overall she seemed pretty aware that affiliates like us might be nervous about this development (which is partly her job I suppose). Again, I'm not gonna freak out about this, but it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on it. And I think kindsvater's idea of letting Amazon know you're concerned is a good idea too!
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    • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
      Good info. This caught my attention though:

      The vast majority of the traffic to Prime Now is going through their mobile Prime Now app, so there shouldn't be much affiliate traffic going there anyway.
      In other words, is mobile another place where Amazon is ripping off affiliates and not paying commissions?

      Compare: Ebay manages to track and reward affiliates for website links if the customer then uses their Ebay mobile app to make a purchase.

      I don't know Amazon's stats, but Ebay says more than half of its traffic and sales are now via mobile, so not paying affiliates because a purchase was via an app is a big deal.

      .
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      • Profile picture of the author kilgore
        Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

        Good info. This caught my attention though:



        In other words, is mobile another place where Amazon is ripping off affiliates and not paying commissions?

        Compare: Ebay manages to track and reward affiliates for website links if the customer then uses their Ebay mobile app to make a purchase.

        I don't know Amazon's stats, but Ebay says more than half of its traffic and sales are now via mobile, so not paying affiliates because a purchase was via an app is a big deal.

        .
        To clarify, I was only talking about the "Prime Now" Amazon app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...com.amazon.now) not the regular Amazon shopping app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...droid.shopping), which AFAIK you do get credit for.

        Regardless, to a large extent all these questions are moot. With any affiliate program you're almost certainly going to lose some of the commissions you should have been entitled to. Perhaps the user used a different device when making the purchase. Perhaps their cookies expired. Or perhaps there's another reason entirely. My guess is with their relatively short cookie lifetimes, Amazon is a site where lots of people lose lots of commissions.

        That said, I think it's a fruitless exercise to try to figure out on an individual transaction basis whether it makes sense to stick with an affiliate program. The real question, is whether partnering with a particular affiliate makes sense to your business overall -- not whether they are "stealing" individual transactions from you.

        It's similar to how people avoid Amazon because their commission rate is "only" 8.5% -- and not the 50% or 75% they can get from some "information product" peddler. Sure all things being equal I'd rather get a higher commission rate. But all things are not equal, and I'd rather get 8.5% of tens of thousands of sales than 75% of just a handful. Similarly, it's not about how much money you lose because you of the way an affiliate program does or doesn't credit you. It's about how much you make by using them.

        Imagine, for instance, an affiliate that only paid when people bought through their website and not through their mobile app. Would it make sense to partner with them? Well... It depends, right?

        If mobile traffic represented only 1% of their sales, maybe it wouldn't be a big deal. But even if mobile traffic accounted for 99% their sales, it still might be worth sticking around depending on what those sales were and how those sales compared to what you'd get from other programs.

        It sounds to me as if you're sour on Amazon, and that you don't have much trust in them. That's perfectly reasonable, and indicates to me that it may be time for you to move on. As for us and our business in this particular moment in time, we make more with Amazon (despite its flaws) than we would without it. And that's fundamentally all that matters.
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        • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
          Originally Posted by kilgore View Post

          It sounds to me as if you're sour on Amazon, and that you don't have much trust in them. That's perfectly reasonable, and indicates to me that it may be time for you to move on. As for us and our business in this particular moment in time, we make more with Amazon (despite its flaws) than we would without it. And that's fundamentally all that matters.
          Seriously, what the heck is this personal attack about? Maybe you're projecting about yourself? Otherwise, nothing like wild speculation and psycho-BS from a comment that, factually, Amazon is not paying commissions on all referrals.

          Not because of a cookie length, which by definition means a commission is not earned and thus not lost.

          If you want to discuss Amazon's affiliate policies and potential losses or gains from mobile that's fine. But leave out the negative personal suggestions and nonsense.

          From the thread you know I've been with Amazon for 17 years, you know I've been paying close attention to Amazon's practices and operating terms, you know I've corresponded with the company about an issue - an issue you apparently did not know existed, and you know I am aware of how mobile referral practices compare with comparable programs like Ebay, and that I pay attention to corporate statements about where they are getting their traffic and sales.

          My suggestion: if a customer clicks on a link on your website but then makes a purchase via their Amazon Shopping App - and you don't know for sure whether you get credit for a commission or not - your time would be better spent finding out rather than criticizing others.

          .
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          • Profile picture of the author kilgore
            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            Seriously, what the heck is this personal attack about? Maybe you're projecting about yourself? Otherwise, nothing like wild speculation and psycho-BS from a comment that, factually, Amazon is not paying commissions on all referrals.
            I certainly didn't mean it as a personal attack, so if you've taken it that way I apologize. But as you were talking about "another place where Amazon is ripping off affiliates" and accusing Amazon of "intentionally create a new subdomain and use tricky, non-obvious legal terms to avoid paying you commissions" it didn't seem like a stretch or psycho-BS to suggest that you didn't have much trust in Amazon. I merely said that (1) your fears seemed reasonable (hardly a personal attack IMO) but that (2) more important than are you getting credited everywhere you think you should is the business question of whether the relationship as a whole is valuable.

            If you took offense to that, again I apologize.
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  • Profile picture of the author BradVert2013
    This is really interesting. I haven't been an Amazon affiliate in years, so I'm not current on a lot of their policies. I hope, as Kilgore said, they do integrate the affiliate payments into the Prime Now website very soon. It's a shame to lose out on those sales - especially since prime members buy a lot of stuff (source: I'm a prime member and spend way too much on Amazon).

    I think this is also a good reminder to not stick all your internet marketing eggs in one basket. Amazon (or any company for that matter) can giveth, and they can taketh away. Get a few multiple streams of income going, so if Amazon (for example) does cut the affiliate program, you won't lose everything.
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  • Profile picture of the author flipperhacks
    Screw Amazon, in most cases you can monetise much better with direct merchants you can find on SaS or CJ
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    I don't know.. to me it just comes back to this is an industry that is constantly changing and we need to adapt to keep up (adapt or die)
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  • Profile picture of the author naffynaff
    Wow. I didn't know about this matter.

    Is this really happening.

    I thought amazon doesn't have any issues at all. It's known to be reliable when it comes to affiliates.
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  • Profile picture of the author maxsi
    Amazon seems to go as many other companies.... it's not new.

    If your main business depends by others (aff. programs) then you have an HIGH RISK to lose everything in 1 minute.

    You need a core business that depend by you only (I mean your website, your products, your mailing lists)
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Originally Posted by FayeAnne View Post

    But why would it make it harder for associates to make money? Isn't it just a matter of Amazon allowing affiliates to receive commissions for items in the quick delivery program? Am I missing something?
    IF Amazon integrates associate commissions into the PrimeNow app, as kilgore's post after mine indicates is in the works, there's no problem. In fact, it could be a good thing.

    If that did not (or doesn't) happen, picture this...

    > One of your visitors clicks through your link and views a product.
    > They decide to buy it.
    > Rather than simply completing the purchase, they remember free, fast delivery with PrimeNow.
    > They fire up the app, which does not pay commissions, and complete a purchase.

    If the PrimeNow promotion catches on in a big way, that scenario could repeat itself many, many times.

    It's particularly relevant when coupled with Amazon's decision to raise the threshold on free non-Prime shipping to $49. At $25, it was a no brainer to throw in an extra item and get free shipping rather than pay the shipping fee. When they raised it to $35, it didn't make much difference. But now people think twice about just throwing in enough stuff to hit the $49 threshold, especially when Prime (and a whole year's worth of free shipping) is only $99.

    I'm still pro-Amazon, but it definitely pays to keep an eye on things like this.
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Pretty alarming and thanks for the heads up. I think someone else mentioned it but that mantra, Adapt or Die, is so true !!

    And this doesn't mean to NOT discuss things like this on this Thread . Nothing wrong with that. But change is always occurring in IM and Life in general !!

    - Robert Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author weblinks99
    I also fee this situation.Thanks for detailed post.
    Signature

    Your Ultimate Shopping Destination
    http://www.shoppingsites4u.com

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  • Profile picture of the author heartyy
    Is it really occurring to amazon now?

    I am not aware about it. I thought amazon was performing great.
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  • Profile picture of the author myob
    The death of the Amazon affiliate program has been imminent for many years, and in some states it's already dead or dying. But the company itself is experiencing record sales.

    Personally, I have not yet seen anything that would indicate such a diversion in affiliate sales, although vigilance in sales tracking metrics and customer followups may be much more critical now than ever before.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    They did, however, launch a website and as kindsvater stated above, affiliates do not currently get commission from sales on that website.
    That said, they do have plans to integrate the affiliate program into the Prime Now website, so that affiliates would get credit for their referrals. Unfortunately, she had no timetable for when this would be done. (She seemed to indicate that this whole initiative was moving very, very quickly.)
    REALLY? Like you don't say.

    Jeff Bezos is the world's 4th richest person. OK so my guess is that Bezos will become richer and you will become poorer.

    Shut up stupid, I need even more money - Jeff Bezos
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