I've just received my first payment from Amazon Associates, being commission earned on sales over the past year. It's less than I had expected. A little over half of my reported "earnings" over the last four quarters were deducted as "personal orders", resulting in commission of less than 2% on total sales. Associates are apparently prohibited from earning commission on personal purchases. I wasn't aware this would be the case so attempted to verify it. Amazon.co.uk couldn't be bothered to reply to my customer service request, so I did some digging around on the Associates Central Discussion Board.
Amazon make their position on personal orders "clear" in the Associates Operating Agreement (Section 4):
You may not purchase products during sessions initiated through the links on your site for your own use, for resale or commercial use of any kind. This includes orders for customers or on behalf of customers or orders for products to be used by you or your friends, relatives, or associates in any manner. Such purchases may result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees or the termination of this Agreement.
Personal shopping on Amazon.co.uk for Associates is therefore less attractive:
- I don't like being screwed like this (Why do I find out 12 months too late? Why are deductions not explained?);
- A customer is a customer: Why should my orders be less valid than someone else's? For Amazon, surely an order is an order!;
- Amazon.co.uk continue to list commission on personal orders as "earnings" - presumably to encourage ongoing personal use of the store - then whip it away after you're done shopping in ignorance. Underhand, to say the least;
- Loss of commission takes away Amazon's edge over price-matching competitors;
- Amazon.co.uk have also placed a £7 earnings cap on electronic items, so the more business you refer Amazon's way, the less your reward. Now that's just dumb.
The only glimmer of good news for Associates is that you don't have to be paid via an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate; you can instead have your earnings deposited into a bank account by direct debit. This means you can choose to do your personal shopping from an online store with less dubious practices.
Update 08.08.05: After a second attempt at contacting Amazon.co.uk (giving them the URL of this page), they replied as follows:
The goal of our program is to generate new customers—if associates order for themselves or for others, we do not get new customers and this would run against the objective of the programme, leading to its cancellation. We are sorry that you are not happy with the programme and thank you for your feedback.
del.icio.us,
Digg,
StumbleUpon
Translate this page: DE | ES | FR
Follow tag feeds: Rant, shopping.
Buy for yourself on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, leave a "tip"
Amazon replied The goal of our program is to generate new customers - which is a little strange since I would have thought their primary concern would be making sales.
I'm sure it is to make sales, however the point of the commissions is to pay people for introducing new customers who then go on to make more purchases in the future.
The associates program is financed with the expectation that part of the first sale is paid to the associate and the lost revenue made up from these future sales.
Amazon's associate program is not for wholesalers, nor for freeloaders. It seems the way you used it was to sign up and expect that taking 5 seconds to fill in a form entitles you to a discount for life. That's simply not a realistic expectation.
I can only recommend reading the terms and conditions before signing up to agreements.
Thanks Dave for the explanation (inside information?). I guess it was naive to have thought the Associates program was about anything other than self-interest for Amazon. I understand that Amazon is a business, and it exists ultimately to make a profit.
And your point about reading agreements is well made, although I expect most of us don't go through them line-by-line with a lawyer by our side. Maybe if Amazon spelt out the deal in plain English, as you have, it would all have been more transparent.
I still don't think this excuses Amazon's behaviour of crediting personal sales to your account balance, only to deduct them a year later. Clearly this was also self-interest i.e. keep the Associate purchasing from Amazon while s/he doesn't realise these sales don't "count".
An honest company would not credit the Associate with the commission fee on a personal purchase in the first place - or if it did so, would show (and importantly, explain) a contemporaneous deduction.
I just realized this today and performed a search to see if anyone else has found out about Amazon's penalties towards personal orders. Viewing my history, it turns out that at one point I actually had a negative earned balance... meaning that even though I had helped sell Amazon orders, my own personal purchases actually created a situation where I OWED money to Amazon.
Thanks for writing up this post. I came across the same thing in my payment history. I now know better and won't be ordering from my own links in the future. I'm glad I figured this out now, and not after trying to do some "wholesaling' scheme online.
I wonder if it still counts towards products shipped?
Thanks,
Bradford Knowlton
I found out the same today after having neglected my Amazon.de PartnerNet stats for a looooong time. Amazon deducted some Euros for "personal orders" in Q1 2006 on 3/31/2006.
I had the Amazon affiliate program running for 7 years on several websites. In the last months, clicks on the ads or referral product links were reducing to a minimum and I almost make more money from Google Ads every month than with Amazon in last 12 months.
I just think the market is almost set. Amazon has the biggest share on the online book market and is unlikely to loose it soon. There aren't many "new customers" left. People who are already shopping with Amazon don't click on Amazon ads on other websites, they go directly to amazon.com/.co.uk/.whatever...
My experience mirrors yours here Jean. Google Ads are a lot less effort for greater reward.
I just found that out today, only because of the new format of statements made what happened clear. From the statements, it appears that this policy was put in place somewhere in 2004. Before that, no mention of personal purchases and no negative credit towards your referral fees.
It's obviously Amazon's right to run the program the way they want it, but I also find that the way they credit referal fees, and later deduct them is objectionable. I would also have appreciated it if, when they made such a change in policy, they'd make an announcement. I understand that their agreement includes their right to make changes without notice, but is anybody is expected to check periodically the operating agreement, which is fairly long-winded, and not even that easy to locate ?
Why don't you just create a second account with Amazon and purchase through the second account. They don't appear to check the address, just the account number (yet)
Just checked my account & pretty much everything earned has be canceled out by personal spending "penalties". I can accept not being paid for my own purchases, but to punish & fine is totally outrageous!
Time to move on with Google and drop Amazon. I was unaware as well. I have been with the program for 7 years and have seen only 2 small checks. I just saw all the deductions in my past year. Jeesh.