One more time the Amazon Affiliates system will undergo changes which will begin to be effective from the day February 1, 2021. Unlike the novelties in the conditions that were imposed in 2017, in which a system of commissions by categories was implemented that favored certain types of products (among which were “digital video games” or “luxury beauty”) over to others who saw their rates drop sharply, now the internet giant is focused on modifying its commission tables.
These will be the changes in the Amazon affiliate system
The Amazon affiliate system allows its members obtain economic benefits through commissions from the sales of a certain product. For example, let’s imagine that a blogger signs up for the Amazon affiliate program and writes an article about a certain video game that redirects to the online sale of that video game on the platform. The blogger will earn a commission for each customer who accesses Amazon through their blog and make the purchase of the video game.
After its modification in 2017, the affiliate system segment the commission rates between the different product categories of the extensive catalog of the marketplace, with a notable difference in rates between categories. Now Amazon has expanded the implemented modifications that reward Amazon ES, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, and Amazon DE Associates, and it has been informed by means of an email that it has sent to all its affiliates in Spain, as well as by means of a communication in .
According to Amazon”the format of the Standard Commission Income tables has been changed to present commission income rates in a simplified and easier to follow format”, in the markets of both Amazon Affiliates Spain and the rest of Europe.
In addition, the “Video Game Consoles” product category has been moved to the commission income tables on the aforementioned websites, and the “” have been moved to the “Amazon Fashion” product category in the Amazon UK site revenue tables and Amazon DE.
Now, standard commission income will be subject to variation “Depending on whether an Eligible Purchase is made by a customer through a Direct Qualifying Purchase or an Indirect Qualifying Purchase, and based on the amount of Qualifying Revenue earned for a Product Category”as reported by Amazon on its Affiliates website.
To make this point a little clearer, the commissions in Amazon Affiliates Spain and in the rest of the countries mentioned will be generally divided into two types:
direct purchases
Refers to a purchase of a product that belongs to the same category of product that comes from the Amazon Associates link on the website. For example, if the affiliate linked to a video game from their blog, any purchase in this category, even if it is not the linked video game, it will be taken as a direct purchase by Amazon.
Indirect Purchases
If the user enters Amazon.es through a link to a product in the fashion category, but ends up buying a product from a different category, such as video games, it will be considered an indirect purchase. In Amazon’s words, “means a “Indirect Affiliated Purchase” the Qualifying Purchase of a Product that is in a Product Category other than that of the product detail page accessed from the Special Link that gave rise to said Qualifying Purchase. If the Special Link does not link to a Product detail page, the Qualifying Purchase will be considered an Indirect Qualifying Purchase.”
Earnings from different categories can go up…or down with changes in Amazon Associates
With this new scheme it is possible that affiliates see their income reduced, “If you don’t link directly to product detail pages on Amazon (for example, if you link to pages other than product landing pages) or if a large portion of your commission income comes from customer purchases unrelated to the products you link to your content.”
Amazon provides us:
- Hypothetical case 1: Let’s say you publish fashion content that doesn’t generate many sales on Amazon, but most of your revenue comes from purchases in fashion-related product categories. If you do nothing, you will probably earn 10% in commission income (when your Affiliate links to fashion products lead to a purchase in the fashion category).
- Hypothetical case 2: Let’s consider the same example as above, but here you do generate a lot of sales. In this case, if the total amount of qualifying revenue you generate in the fashion category (when your Affiliate links to fashion products lead to a purchase in the fashion category) is equal to or greater than €15,000 in a calendar month, you could earn 12% commission income on all fashion sales resulting from your content (when your Affiliate links to fashion products lead to a purchase in the fashion category).
- Hypothetical case 3: Now, let’s say you redirect most of your clicks to pages that are not product detail pages. An example would be if you redirect the majority of your traffic to the Amazon home page. In this case, if you don’t change your link strategy (and maybe your content strategy too), you’ll probably see your revenue drop, as you’ll only receive 1.5% commissions on most product categories.
New Amazon Associates commission tables
Amazon has also published the new commission tables that will apply from February:
Also, if the traffic going to Amazon generates sales that “exceed the first level” the affiliate will get higher commission income on all sales generated in a product category.
In any case, Amazon will explain in its report for affiliates what are those levels to reach, as you can see in this example:
On the other hand, those who participate in the Amazon Influencers Program will earn the following income from Standard Commissions of the Program via your links on your influencer page:
You can check the earnings report in the “reports” section of Amazon Associates if you want to know what fraction of your link traffic has generated targeted direct purchases.
According to the retail giant, these changes have been made to reward affiliates who focus on share high quality content, properly segmented and towards specific productswith which customers can help make their purchase decisions and discover new products.
Stay informed of the most relevant news on our news channel
Facebook Comments
Disqus