Amazon Sales Mystery Clues
I have been reading forums and many sellers have had similar problems to mine. They still have the same traffic, they still have the same clicks through to Amazon but they just aren't getting sales. Some have started to notice patterns that make them think Amazon is doing something to prevent sales or prevent us from getting credit from sales.
Here are some forum comments I have paraphrased;
Person 1- I feel like Amazon is turning my sales off.
Person 2- I used to get regular sales now I go for weeks with no sales at all. Then everything looks better for a week and I think it might ok, then I will go for weeks with no sales again. This pattern repeats. Sales for a week, no sales for 2 or 3 weeks. It is too consistant to be a coincidence. I am getting sales right now so I know I will go for several weeks with no sales now.
Person 3- I have a friend who sells books on Amazon. He has over a half million books for sale. He has had no sales since Thursday. That doens't happen to him. There are many booksellers having the same problem. Other sellers who have been on Amazon for many years are having the same problem. It seems Amazon is controlling the sales. They say nothing is wrong but it appears somone is lying.
I feel like I am starting to see the same patterns...I for weeks with no sales at all even though I have good click through rates. Then suddenly I get sales almost every day for a week, then go several weeks with no sales at all. I really think something is going on with Amazon. If they are minupulating the system, no amount of writing quality content, practicing good SEO etc. will help.
I hate to be a downer here but we may need to look at other affiliates.
Or maybe this summer was the anomoly and now I am back to where I was before that blip. Hopefully it will get better one way or the other. I shouldn't complain. My bad months now are better than my best months last year.
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I usually get 70 clicks a day with a sale here and there. I haven't had any clicks on Amazon for well over a week, other than one or two every other day.
Wow, that is a dramatic example but that would indicate a problem with traffic getting to Amazon. How long has this been going on for you?
amazon need affiliate to help them- so it makes no sense to try to get rid of them.
they have changed their terms lately a couple of times - i have skimmed it but is there something in there changing the way you qualify for commissions - i know they are pushing their new efficiency guidelines.
if people are using oneclick i know you don't get the commission.
have they changed the sell box?
That is a really good point. I skimmed it also and didn't notice anything but I should look more closely and maybe ask.
Thanks!
Gee, I hope Amazon isn't messing around with the affiliate program. We all work so hard, and that would be grossly unfair. Let's hope things change.
I hope I am wrong and it is just a low period for sales. I do need to keep working on getting posts up consistently. I have been doing pretty well lately. I added a new post on how to help pets in hurricane Michael which has been really popular but I don't have any affiliate links in it. It should still help my Google rankings to get a lot of traffic though. There were 44 organic pageviews for that one post so far today! I used the new SiteComments here to request comments on it as well and got a lot of traffic and great comments the last few days on it as well.
I agree. I would be just sick to find out Amazon was cheating us.
What a good idea to do a post on helping pets in the hurricane. Talk about filling a need! Well done!
Don't forget these facts about the Amazon affiliate program.
1. They only have a 24 hour cookie, so people have to decide quickly for you to get the commission.
2. Amazon doesn't offer cross-device, so if someone starts their search on their phone, then completes the purchase on their laptop later, you don't get credit for the sale.
3. If Amazon thinks there's any chance that you know the shopper, you don't get credit for the sale.
There are so many other negatives about Amazon I could fill your whole feed with more points. But #1 is reason alone to look for other merchants for anything Amazon sells; you'll get longer cookies and higher commissions just about everywhere else.
Yes, but it was working so well for me. I was getting sales almost every day earlier this summer. In the pet niche I get 8% as well.
I don't get sales on any of my non-Amazon product links. Amazon is it. That is what everyone gravitates toward. If I used an affiliate like PetSmart they would not offer most of the products I review and people couldn't go buy a toaster or a pair of jeans at the same time they buy cat food.
I might not have any choice though! We will see.
I did not know about the cross device issue. Thanks!
When you are in the weeks with no sales ask a friend or somthing to click your amazon link and buy something from amazon. If the sale does not register for you when and you know your link was used than you can guarantee amazon is being shady with their commissions. I think Amazon could get in trouble for that.
Hope this helps
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Jessica, I'm having the same experience with Amazon. Last month my Amazon commission ended with a negative balance. My account had more returns than sales. This month is not much better and I can't understand what's going on.
I sent an enquiry to Amazon Support last month as to any known reason for the drop in commission. The representative replied telling me she couldn't access my website and to make sure I keep my websites updated. I couldn't understand where she was coming from as there is nothing the matter any of my websites, so I replied telling her so. I received a reply from another representative saying that the other rep must have had a problem with her internet connection, and that my site is all good. However, I did not receive a reply to my original enquiry. All hopeless, to my thinking.
My first commission was for sales in November 2014 and since that date I'd never experienced a month without Amazon commissions, until last month. Negative - I can't believe it!
I've thought of looking for another affiliate program. Maybe Share-a-Sale, although I don't have any experience with them but they seem to be popular.
Hello Valerie,
I am sorry to hear you are doing so badly on Amazon. I am still getting a few but it is definitely down.
I called Amazon Associates a few months ago when this downturn started and they insisted everything was normal. I have not tried again since I doubt it would do any good but maybe I should. If nothing else, if a lot of us call maybe they will figure out that we are on to them! Maybe we should start a campaign!
I am on Share-a-Sale and have been for about a year. I have made 1 sale in all that time...not encouraging! That is why I prefer Amazon!
Of course, to be fair, I have only a few links to Share-a-Sale. The vast majority of my links are to Amazon so it isn't a fair comparison. I guess I could switch out all the links on one of my posts and see what happens. That would be hard though since Amazon offers everything all in one place and most other merchants don't. Unless you go with Wal-Mart or something like that it would be hard to get the selection that Amazon offers.
It is more efficient (when it works) to have a large retailer like Amazon because all our sales go into the same pot. If the payout on other merchants is $20 or more, it will take a long time to actually get paid since we would need to get to $20 for company A, another $20 for company B etc. Because of this, I still have not been paid for the one sale on Share-a-Sale since it is just one sale and doesn't meet the payout threshold.
I hope this all gets better somehow!
Jessica
ShareASale is hugely popular among bloggers and are an excellent network to work with. They have both huge programs like Wayfair and literally thousands of niche program in virtually every vertical. (Full disclosure - I work for Awin.com and we own ShareASale, but I worked with ShareASale as an affiliate before I joined Awin!).