The Coming Death of the Amazon Affiliate Program

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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:

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:

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.

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#main internet marketing discussion forum #affiliate #amazon #coming #death #program
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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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    • 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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  • 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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    • 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.

      .
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  • 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.
  • Screw Amazon, in most cases you can monetise much better with direct merchants you can find on SaS or CJ
  • 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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  • 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.
  • 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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  • 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.
  • 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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  • I also fee this situation.Thanks for detailed post.
  • Is it really occurring to amazon now?

    I am not aware about it. I thought amazon was performing great.
  • 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.
  • 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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    The Coming Death of the Amazon Affiliate Program

    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.