Amazon announced a new program that incentivizes sellers to advertise their Amazon product listings rather than their own websites through non-Amazon marketing channels.
For example, Amazon would instead have you pay Instagram influencers to send traffic back to your product on Amazon–not to rival platforms where your product is listed.
This move by Amazon is likely a response to the momentum Shopify has been gaining by partnering with the Google marketing ecosystem to extend sellers’ reach and Shopify’s expansion of its one-click checkout to ALL merchants on Google and Facebook. So what is the new program? Well, it’s NOT the “Amazon Associate” program for affiliate marketers. The new program is called the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus program, and it’s designed specifically for Amazon sellers.
How does the program work? When you drive traffic that results in a sale on the Amazon platform for your brand, you will receive a referral bonus, which Amazon says averages about 10%. That referral bonus acts as a credit to your Amazon referral fees. Also, if customers buy anything else from your brand, you’ll receive credit if it falls within the 14-day click window.
You’ll have to decide if the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus program is suitable for your business model. For some, it might be a win-win because you won’t have to deal with the merchant fees, hosting headaches, and other operational headaches experienced in multi-channel e-commerce.
It doesn’t make much sense for other sellers who want to own their customer’s journey and expand customer lifetime value through upsells and future sales. You can learn more about the Amazon Brand Referral Bonus program here.
