Sadly, during a time where business is unpredictable while COVID-19 keeps everyone locked indoors (mostly), Amazon has decided to cut their rates for their affiliate program (Amazon Associates). This means less profit for publishers who share content and ads within their platforms (ie, websites, newsletters, apps, so forth).
Amazon has been one of the most popular affiliate programs available online, with a history of providing successful numbers for publishers. However, throughout the years, they have cut their program back a number of times, this being the latest.
They share profit for sales referred to their website by publishers in the form of a percentage of each item purchased. That percentage depends upon a number of product categories, each category having its own percentage of return (ie, Electronics, Furniture, Clothing, Jewelry, Grocery, etc). With the new changes, some of these percentages have seen a drop as noticeable as coming from 8% or 5%, down to 3% or even 1%.
This hurts an already wounded tier of percentages that have been chipped away at over the years. Some of these categories already being within the 1-2% range before this change happened (ie, Electronics).
The program used to make use of a tiered approach where the more items referred, the higher the percentage. This was a lucrative option for major publishers like ourselves when it came to the funding that kept all the gears oiled and moving. They then discontinued that, replacing it with the (now) product category approach, which meant smaller and static percentages for each sale. No matter how successful you were, the percentage never changed (improved). Since then, they have been cutting back on these individual percentages. This round, being a big one.
This latest round affects a number of categories, including grocery, Amazon Fresh, health & personal care, and furniture. Some of the few categories left that carried a decent percentage. These now see the new 1-3% return. Not a lot of return to help influence publishers to refer such content.
Amazon has yet to say if this was caused by the current COVID-19 situation. However, as you can see, it isn’t anything new when it comes to moves made by the company toward this program. It has since received a lot of attention from the publishing community since it weakens its affiliate program to such an extent. This will have a major impact on the profit that goes to funding such publishers (such as our own, and our neighbors in news, reviews, product guides and more).
Niche blogs and similar communities online might even find themselves shutting down due to the significant decrease in income that was keeping their efforts alive. That alone has lead to many users taking action, including in the form of petitions (example) where the publishing community is trying to preserve the quality of this program that (has) been successful for so many years.
We ourselves have already seen a shift in affiliate/sponsor programs used here, which has resulted in a greatly reduced number of ads and links relating to Amazon, as other programs take the place of these. Mostly due to the reduced numbers simply not being competitive enough to be considered resourceful.
Last Update: 04/20/2020
