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Amazon Affiliates On-Site Shopping Cart Vs. Direct Linking?

by LastMeALifetime
4 replies
Hey everyone,

I'd love to get some input from you folks as far as what you think about having an on-site shopping cart where users can add items from your site and once they are ready to 'checkout' it redirects them to the Amazon cart. Versus just having a unique amazon affiliate redirect button for each product which would redirect the user to the product page on Amazon itself.

I'm curious to see if anyone else has had any experience with this. I just implemented an on-site cart on my website but I fear it may be hurting my sales since people may be more reluctant to actually add a product and proceed to checkout versus someone just clicking on one of my products' affiliate links and instantly being redirected to amazon giving me the opportunity to cash in on any other item they purchase within the 24hr time frame.
#affiliates #amazon #cart #direct #linking #onsite #shopping
  • Profile picture of the author luku
    Originally Posted by LastMeALifetime View Post

    Hey everyone,

    I'd love to get some input from you folks as far as what you think about having an on-site shopping cart where users can add items from your site and once they are ready to 'checkout' it redirects them to the Amazon cart. Versus just having a unique amazon affiliate redirect button for each product which would redirect the user to the product page on Amazon itself.

    I'm curious to see if anyone else has had any experience with this. I just implemented an on-site cart on my website but I fear it may be hurting my sales since people may be more reluctant to actually add a product and proceed to checkout versus someone just clicking on one of my products' affiliate links and instantly being redirected to amazon giving me the opportunity to cash in on any other item they purchase within the 24hr time frame.
    Hey,

    I experimented with both and saw better results without the 'add to cart' option. However, my traffic was pretty low at that time and perhaps my results are not proven well.

    Anyway, I think it's kinda too intrusive to ask people to add a item to the cart which in fact they didn't yet seen on Amazon. Unless you have an affiliate store when you in fact import products from Amazon and provide a shopping experience, then i am pretty sure referring visitors to Amazon.com through a direct link will perform better even though the cookie lasts just for 24hrs - I do that on my site and well, it brings some money.

    Hope that helps a little.

    Lukas
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    • Profile picture of the author nik0
      Banned
      Linking to Amazon converts better and is also a more honest experience.

      When people have to add something to the cart you give them illusion they will buy it from you and they will feel a bit fooled when they end up on Amazon.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stevie C
    Depends on the site set up if you have a review type site or an authority site then I would add direct linking if you are running an e-commerce style site then the cart facility.

    Personally I have had more luck with direct linking.

    As Nik0 points out a lot of it comes down to the trust factor so you have to have a site that looks professional if you are using the shopping cart feature.

    The Pro's of a shopping cart is that you get a 90 day cookie and if you don't add affiliate links all over the place the chances are that Google will see it as an e-commerce site rather than an affiliate site -which is a good thing btw.
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    • Profile picture of the author nik0
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Stevie C View Post

      Depends on the site set up if you have a review type site or an authority site then I would add direct linking if you are running an e-commerce style site then the cart facility.

      Personally I have had more luck with direct linking.

      As Nik0 points out a lot of it comes down to the trust factor so you have to have a site that looks professional if you are using the shopping cart feature.

      The Pro's of a shopping cart is that you get a 90 day cookie and if you don't add affiliate links all over the place the chances are that Google will see it as an e-commerce site rather than an affiliate site -which is a good thing btw.
      That's a good thing, but the bad thing is that Google gives even less love to eCommerce sites due to all the thin/duplicate content so I don't know who's better off

      Most people choose eCommerce sites cause it's so easy, import a load of products and there you go, and then try to rank it Sure, that can be fixed but then they could just as well not build an eCommerce site.

      Someone else lately mentioned that he builds sites with an additional shopping section, possible under a sub domain that he doesn't allow to index. That way he can offer 1000's of products with no risk, but then once again you need to do more then just that, so that would be like a review site with shopping section. No idea how that would work out in terms of conversions as afterall Amazon is already a shopping site so why duplicate that instead of sending them straight away to Amazon.
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