Amazon Cutting Commissions on April 21st

RRunner said:
Walmart has been targeting Amazon and the Amazon affiliate program for a while. This may help them.

With this change, Walmart now offers higher commissions on many categories and has a cookie duration 3x longer.
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You have no idea how worried i was when i first saw this thread, because the niche i am in does not have it's own affiliate program other than amazon, and then saw your reply and looked at walmart. Guess what? It has ALL of the products i promote, thank you for your reply. You just saved my 2k invested in my affiliate website.
Cheers
 
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davids355 said:
Good time to short amazon I’d say.
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I was thinking this, I'd imagine next earnings report is going to be pretty bad if they're trying to cut rates here.

Although my actual Amazon sales were positive the last 2 months, so either they're trying to squeeze as much money as they can before recession, or they've missed earnings hard.
 
Walmart commission rates:
https://affiliates.walmart.com/#!/benefits



nSnoopy said:
You have no idea how worried i was when i first saw this thread, because the niche i am in does not have it's own affiliate program other than amazon, and then saw your reply and looked at walmart. Guess what? It has ALL of the products i promote, thank you for your reply. You just saved my 2k invested in my affiliate website.
Cheers
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MisterF said:
Guy posted a screenshot in a FB group where he'd asked support if this was just a temp measure for the COVID-19 and the CS said to him it was a permanent move.
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I wouldn't believe anything an Amazon CS person says, but I expect this is permanent. We have had these cuts in April the last couple of years (last year a lot of categories were taken from 7% to 4% and the year before that was the move away from the volume based 8.5% rates). So this seems to be the new annual cut to commissions, can't way to see them try out a negative commission rate!
 
AestheticHustler said:
This drastic change in commission fees is likely due to the current pandemic, I doubt that they're going to make their affiliate program as unlucrative as it is right now on a long-term basis. In my opinion, that's a call from the top so that they squeeze the last percentages of revenue in those times, so that their investors won't cut their shares.
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So in your opinion this is a temporary change? Has there ever been a time when Amazon increased commissions? I haven't been in the game long but I've only ever known them to decrease.
 
nSnoopy said:
I was just looking at that and i'm ok with the 4% rather than amanzon's 3% (8% untill now, sadly).
Thanks again.
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you will lose that 1% in conversion.

Brighter Faster said:
I wouldn't believe anything an Amazon CS person says, but I expect this is permanent. We have had these cuts in April the last couple of years (last year a lot of categories were taken from 7% to 4% and the year before that was the move away from the volume based 8.5% rates). So this seems to be the new annual cut to commissions, can't way to see them try out a negative commission rate!
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It's definitely permanent as they don't need us that much. They are a monopoly and they have direct sales anyway.
 
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Jeepy said:
you will lose that 1% in conversion.
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I have a new website that i had planned to use amazon affiliate, but this move got me off guard, now i need to look some place else for alternatives.
I'm not from the US but as i see things Walmart is very close to Amazon in terms of sales.
 
AestheticHustler said:
This drastic change in commission fees is likely due to the current pandemic, I doubt that they're going to make their affiliate program as unlucrative as it is right now on a long-term basis. In my opinion, that's a call from the top so that they squeeze the last percentages of revenue in those times, so that their investors won't cut their shares.
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This change is permanent.
 
Jeepy said:
you will lose that 1% in conversion.
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Agreed in general, but there are plenty of steps to take to increase conversions away from Amazon. I got hit by last year's cut from 7% to 4% on clothing/shoes. Here are things that help:

  • Tell people why they shouldn't buy this item/type of item at Amazon. Counterfeits, used goods passed off as new, etc. Or sellers literally selling trash on Amazon (https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-dumpster-divers-selling-trash-wsj-report-2019-12)
  • Tell people why they should buy from whatever place you are sending them. Customer service, quality, whatever.
  • Promote products that are not available on Amazon. There are plenty of brands that just don't sell on Amazon, so if that is your top pick people don't have the choice to go buy it on Amazon.
Also, watch conversions at programs you try out very carefully. A lot of places convert terribly, so you'll need to try out different places to find the ones that convert. I've seriously had one place convert at 0.1% for a product and then a different retailer convert for the exact same product at like 2-2.5%. Some places do things to steal your commission during the checkout process (like a VIP program or similar crap).
 
i really want to believe this is due to the corona pandemic, which is leading to increased shipping and employee hazard pay expenses. but in case, i will be putting direct links to other affiliate products on the top of my lists...
 
So sad to see that now amazon seems to care even less about the affiliates, greed is what I think!!
 
Just hit 1k/month last month and I was going to hit 2k this month. Seems like I'm back at 300-500/month . COOL COOL COOL :(
 
K114a said:
Will they reverse this? Is it possible if we all do something to reverse this? :(
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Not very likely they will reverse anything. In my opinion it's not covid-19 related entirely, mostly is their and Bezos's greed in play, as there is more and more online sales going on right now, and they do know that people will go to Amazon anyway, so they want to play us out as commission cuts will earn them way more than all the peoplewho decide to move away from Amazon, at least in short term. So basically, it's just getting the profit up, stock price up until Bezos is out. At this point, they don't really care about affiliates, we were only means to build up a company and we succeded. Now, we are only collateral damage in their game, so no, commissions will never go back.
First, I also thought that they are lowering due to covid, as a means to decrease the actual price of the products, but then noticed that FBA program increased it's fees, basically confirming that Amazon just want's to suck up as much as profit as possible.

Time to find new a program, or even to make one, as this opens hell of a possibility for similar companies. It's a marketplace, if Amazon and Ali-xx could make it, what's stops us? We have freaking promotion channels (thousands of our websites), only thing we need is to come together and make it. Only crowd from BHW would cover most of categories, so what stops us. We can even introduce payments with crypto along the way, and we are one step in front of them, as they are big, equals slow. So, let's use that and make something better out of it.

Anyway, let's talk.
 
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