Amazon Affiliate Commission Rate: Update April 2020
Amazon’s affiliate program members will be getting less money, starting on April 21st. The changes are quite significant in some cases: The furniture and home improvement category’s affiliate cut fell from 8 percent to 3 percent while grocery items’ commission rate is now down to 1 percent from 5 percent.
The news comes almost one full year ago to the day as Amazon is at it again, slashing its associate’s commission rate. The reason I remember the last update so vividly was because I posted the news in 2019 in an Affiliate Reddit sub called r/JustStart. This particular group focuses on helping people launch affiliate websites. One of my affiliate sites which was heavily focused on pitching luggage products, took a massive hit. The luggage commission rate dropped from 8% to 4%. This time around, many other product categories are seeing similar extreme drops.
History of Amazon Affiliate Commission Rates
This was the Amazon Affiliate Commission Rate back in the day. Earnings, we’re based on volume. It was indeed a magical time if you had one site that was geared to selling items in bulk while trying to sell high ticket items on another site. The combination made a lot of people a lot of money. It was changed in March of 2017
This change got away from the overall volume approach and grouped things based on the niche. This version of was when Amazon affiliate commission rate made sense, and I can see why they made the change from the previous version. However, this version of stayed around for about a year.
This was the latest Amazon Affiliate Commission Rate but is subject to change April 21, 2020
Newest Change:
While some would argue that Covid-19 is the main reason for the cutback, there are other reports that the founder and boss, Jeff Bezos, has seen his wealth swell by $24 Billion after soaring demand for online shopping sent the firm’s share price to a new high.
Is Amazon Associates Even Worth Promoting?
Regardless of why Amazon has slashed its rates, this is a perfect time for affiliate marketers to realize that you shouldn’t have all your eggs in one basket in terms of ways to make money with your website. Granted, Amazon’s affiliate program was one of the easiest platforms to work with, as once you got someone to their site you earned commission on everything a person added to their cart. But with only a 24-hour cookie, and now one of the worst commission rates on the web, you’re better off exploring alternatives.
I have an outdated article on best affiliate programs for publishers that I plan to update very soon. A lot of the content is out of date, including Amazon’s rates, however, there are a few suggestions in that article that could help you explore other avenues for making money outside of Amazon.
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