Instagram and YouTube-famous people frequently advertise the brands they like, either as a major aspect of a brand relationship or as methods for producing pay through associate deals. Presently, Amazon is hoping to get in on this activity too. Keeping mute about it, the tech giant has initiated the Amazon Influencer Program which is as of now in beta testing, starting at two or three days back. Like the Amazon Affiliate program, the new program will offer influencers commission on items sold, yet is not open to people in general.
As compared to the Amazon Affiliates, the uniqueness of the Influencer program lies in its selectiveness.
In order to become an Amazon Affiliate, you really don’t need much. Anyone can become an affiliate just by signing up and applying ads on their website or blog. When a customer buys a product through your site, you will get a certain amount of commission.
However, Amazon Influencers doesn’t work this way. In order to become one, you must submit an application to sign up for it.
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Preference of Influential People
The details of the program clearly states that only people with large social clout will be accepted into the program. However, certain other factors like fan engagement, quality of content and level of relevancy for Amazon are considered as well.
Amazon stated that the eligibility criterion doesn’t include a specific amount of followers and influencers from every category of social media will be represented.
Unqiue URL
The Influencers will be provided with a unique vanity URL by Amazon on its own domain which will make it easy for customers to find it.
In this way, customers will be able to explore different products recommended by the influencer on the same page. The link to the page will be posted in the comment or description section of one’s YouTube or Instagram post.
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However, the fact that the Influencers will receive higher commission as compared to Affiliates is still a mystery.
Here is an example for the program. This popular YouTube channel, What’s Up Moms will have a unique URL format like: amazon.com/shop/username/
When a user clicks on this link, he will be redirected to a page which will show thumbnails of different products recommended by the user along with the price, description and prime status of those products.
The president and COO of WhatsUpMoms, Liane Mullin was asked about her company’s involvement in the influencer program to which she said:
“We are really excited to be a part of this new program. As the #1 Parenting Network on YouTube, we are constantly asked by our community for product recommendations; and about the products used in our videos. Now that we have our own Amazon store makes it much easier to have a curated collection all in one spot”
User–recommended Products
Amazon is in no way connected to the specification of products listed by a user. The type of products available on each user’s website is totally his/her choice. Users can list any product they recommend instead of listing products recommended by Amazon.
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However, different influencers might have advertisement agreements with other brands outside Amazon; but Amazon chooses not to get involved in this.
The Influencer program has been launched only a few days ago and is still in beta testing mode. Amazon will examine how customers react to this program and the impact it will have on sales. Right now, only a small number of influencers have joined the program.
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