Amazon Raises Affiliate Commission Rates

Amazon has announced that it is raising commissions on a small set of product categories for a limited time. The new, higher payment rates arrive two years after Amazon cut fees during the Covid pandemic as consumers turned to buying more items online.

Although the new rates are higher, some product categories are still several percentage points lower than the commission rates of Covid affiliates.

Below is a list of how the new prices compare.

Amazon Affiliate Program

Amazon pays commissions to affiliate publishers who refer visitors who convert into sales.

Amazon is a trusted brand name which (in the past) made Amazon a good affiliate partner to work with because motivated referral has a higher conversion rate on Amazon than being referred to a lesser known and trusted brand.

This popularity changed in April 2020 as the pandemic changed the way consumers buy products and they started buying directly from Amazon in order to comply with the lockdown and avoid going out, catching Covid and dying.

Because of the massive consumer supply, the need to pay affiliates became less urgent and Amazon did the logical thing and lowered the affiliates commission rate.

The luxury and beauty product categories saw affiliate commission rates collapse by a total of 6 percentage points, dropping from a 10% commission rate to just 4%.

Furniture commission rates also collapsed from 8% to 3%, while grocery commissions fell four percentage points from 5% to 1%.

Amazon raises commission rates

An email has been sent to Amazon Partners (“Amazon Affiliates”) announcing promotional commission rates for a limited time ending May 4, 2022.

The email states:

“This is a great opportunity to take advantage of higher commissions in popular categories. The more stores your audience has, the more you earn.

Promotional rates are valid through May 4th.

A modest increase in Amazon affiliate commission rates

The increase in commissions is not comprehensive.

Amazon raised commission rates on the following categories:

• • Shoes, handbags and accessories
  • office products
  • kitchen
  • a house
  • home improvement
  • Beauty
  • Commercial and industrial supplies
  • Health and personal care

Although commission rates have increased, the new higher rates still hover 1 to 3 percentage pages below pre-Covid commission rates.

Home and home improvement affiliate rates, for example, were raised from 3% to 5%, but that’s still three percentage points lower than the 8% commission rate that products in those categories were charging.

Commission rates for commercial and industrial supplies are rising from 3% to 5%, which is just below the pre-Covid commission rate of 6%.

Likewise, healthcare and personal care commission rates have increased from 1% to 2%, but this is still well below the pre-Covid commission rate of 4.5%.

Amazon promotional commission rates

Here are the new promotional commission rates on Amazon.com:

• Shoes, bags and accessories (old rate) 4.00% (new rate) 6.00%
• Office products (old price) 4.00% (new rate) 6.00%
• Kitchen (old price) 4.50% (new price) 5.50%
• Home (old price) 3.00% (new price) 5.00%
• Home Improvement (old rate) 3.00% (new rate) 5.00%
• Beauty (old rate) 3.00% (new rate) 5.00%
• Commercial and industrial supplies 3.00% (new rate) 5.00%
• Health and personal care 1.00% (new rate) 2.00%

Amazon Partner Program

Amazon is one of the most trusted brands in the world, and despite the low commission rates, it is still a viable partner.

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Read current Amazon Affiliate pay rates

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