From April 21, things will be tighter for YouTuber, website operators and other affiliates who work with Amazon – at least in the USA. The company has announced a drastic reduction in commissions within its affiliate program. In times of Corona, this will certainly hit some of them again with particular severity.
With affiliate links, content creators earn money on the Internet. They refer customers to the shop of the corresponding provider and receive a commission for this, usually in the single-digit percentage range. The customers do not pay for this additionally, the commission is already included in the sales price.
Amazon is reducing commissions in the USA from April 21, 2020 as follows:
- Furniture, home, garden and animal products: From 8 to 3 percent
- headphones, beauty, musical instruments, business and industrial products: From 6 to 3 percent
- Outdoor and tools: from 5.5 to 3 percent
- food: from 5 to 1 percent
- sport and baby products: From 4.5 to 3 percent
- Health and body care: from 4.5 to 1 percent
- Amazon Fresh: from 3 to 1 percent
The German Amazon partner program has so far been spared the measures, but Otto has also announced that it will reduce its commission rates. In the Multimedia & Household Electronics division, the German mail-order company is lowering its commission rate to 1 percent – due to the current corona crisis. Otto announces that they hope to raise the commission rate again soon. This is not the case with Amazon.
Due to the massive reduction of sometimes more than 50 percent, some content creators will certainly be driven into financial ruin and will be forced to acquire other affiliate cooperations.
