Amazon big changes......

It's simple now. The "low prices" (let me laugh about this illusion for a bit) and a BETTER non capped pc commissions comes from the increased FBA fees and how sellers can't rank without it. They figure these rates will still entice ppl to promote for aff income, and ppl to buy because prices are "lower" than retail. It's a game of trying to fuck over a set group of ppl to make the most money they can pocket, before having competition close them up. I think any small marketplace with better sales commission for affiliates will be the next big Amazon. It doesn't take much when you can get idiots excited over earning a few pennies, and few morons to pay a small % per sale for the traffic you are scooping up.

Well, time to pivot, boys. @Nargil get your premium expired domain list ready. Bite the pillow, I'm coming in dry.

Yep, you raise some valid points.

But, there is a lot to play for. Any competitor has an uphill struggle against market incumbents, but this doesn't mean it's an impossible task.

From my point of view the logistics are a big issue with Aliexpress. Every problem has a solution tho ;-)

Jared255 said:

Dunno... AliExpress would have to majorly revamp the entire website to not look like a scam, and offer similar products to Amazon (especially branded ones), and get their cart totals to rival Amazon, and start a review ecosystem, AND get their shipping times WAY down somehow (not really feasible if products come from overseas) if they ever hope to compete with Amazon directly. Not to mention how many people use Amazon because of Prime (even if AliExpress could do standard times, a lot of people would choose Amazon regardless). Doesn't really seem like there is anyone remotely close to pushing out Amazon for the go-to e-commerce affiliate, even with these new lower rates. As @mgsss mentioned, Amazon still has extremely competitive rates with the change, and if you try to promote any other e-com platform your conversions will drop like a rock. I promote Wayfair on one of my sites along with Amazon and Wayfair earns me peanuts compared to Amazon. I tried Walmart and it's not barely even worth dropping the cookie by linking to there on one of your recommended products.

They have things on lock. I'm surprised rates stayed so high for so long... even with their high seller fees 8% commission on everything is still just crazy high.

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So the rumors are true.

Google Prince said:

Even though most of my niches on Amazon either increased in commission % or stayed the same, I'm choosing to venture off more into other affiliate programs. Amazon will forever keep changing their percentages which in long term will effect a lot of affiliates and is something my gut doesn't feel too good about.

Any niche you guys & gals are currently in most likely has other niche sites that incorporate an affiliate program that you can cash out on w/ higher commission rates.

When the segways were really hot I made a pretty good amount of money monetizing w/ Amazon but later found out I could've made waaaay more If I would have joined an affiliate program from a site within that niche which was offering commission rates of 10% or more!

Amazon is always going to be a good way to make some income but I wouldn't rely too much on them.

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Great point. If you are promoting an individual high-ticket item, you can often make more with them directly rather than going through Amazon. But, your calculation there may have assumed that the individual e-com program would convert as well as Amazon. I had a similar thought on one of my current sites that sells products between $500 and $1500. The aff program was 10%+. But then it converted way worse, so Amazon was still way better despite the lower rates. At this point though 4% vs. something like 10% may be enough of a difference though. Overall you are right on and it's definitely smart to be looking at different affiliate programs - most are completely untapped because people limit themselves to what is sold on Amazon when TONS of physical and non-physical products are sold elsewhere - but I wouldn't be too regretful that you didn't try out the random affiliate program for a slight increase in percentage.

pj777777 said:

Yep, you raise some valid points.

But, there is a lot to play for. Any competitor has an uphill struggle against market incumbents, but this doesn't mean it's an impossible task.

From my point of view the logistics are a big issue with Aliexpress. Every problem has a solution tho ;-)

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Absolutely. If I recall jet.com was trying to compete with Amazon but I haven't heard anything from them recently besides seeing a few physical ads on trashcans in Boston. I'd love to see someone dethrone Amazon, it just looks unlikely that anyone will in the near future because of their stranglehold on everything and their ability to just drive out everyone else. Maybe AliExpress could establish themselves as the apparel go-to over Amazon - Amazon has sh*tty clothing selections anyways and it seems like that's the biggest thing on AliExpress. But I am no expert

mixery said:

I put my bet that it will be another reduction soon.
Especially with the new Google update where the Amazon is in the top five positions.

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I'd imagine the categories above 4% will be the next to drop because I'd imagine those are only higher because Amazon is still competing with other e-com giants in those categories.

I've tested AliExpress affiliate, seems nice, way different then Amazon. Their session cookie is just killing all the will that I've even remotely had to promote AliExpress and they fucking do retargeting on the high level it's almost annoying. If they change that to something at least remotely decent instead of session only, should not be so bad.

I've talked with Amazon and told them if they don't change back to the old tiered system I will terminate my affiliate site. I think I have them scared. No worries guys, it'll return back to the old system shortly.