Well, a couple of days ago we put in the requirements that Amazon have forced upon affiliates in order to comply with the new Associates Programme Operating Agreement.  A couple of changes were needed to be made, one good and one not so.

Potentially one change could mean an increase in commission for some affiliates.  We will now show your classic Amazon ID (where you have given it on the My Details page) on all orders over £175, whilst those under will show the Performance Plan ID (if you’ve put it into the My Details page).  This relies on you providing the correct ID’s for the category you’re using at Amazon.

The other change that Amazon have inflicted on us, means that the units can look distorted, and it’s for this that we would like your help.  Amazon’s new terms had a line in which relates to showing their items in a price comparison page and is quoted below:

“In addition, if you choose to display prices for any Product on your site in any “comparison” format (including through the use of any price-comparison tool or engine) together with prices for the same or similar products offered through any web site or other outlet other than the Amazon.co.uk Site, you must display both the lowest “new” price and, if we provide it to you, the lowest “used” price at which the Product is available on the Amazon.co.uk Site.”

OK, this has really taken away any choices affiliates had about which product to promote and whether it’s through Amazon direct or a Third Party Seller.  Lots of affiliates hate to promote the third party sellers prices as they have extra delivery to be added, and are of course not Amazon.  Now we have to show the ‘Best New Price’ whereever that may come from and the ‘Best Used Price’ on all of their products.

One thing that blesses this (which I have noticed) is that the landing page for the product shows the best price – so if it’s a 3rd party seller, that’s the one shown, and Amazon is in the sidebar under other sellers.  So the change might help with clarity for the customer.  However this has posed us with a headache.

How do we fit in the extra prices?  Well to be compliant, we have just ‘stuck them in’ but this is not great, and certainly takes away the good look that the units have.  We’re trying lots of different ways to implement this,  but coming up blank really.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

If you do please let us know in the comments below, or send in a support ticket through ECU.

It seems that we can’t go a week with out adding exciting new features to ECU which are designed to maximise your commissions.  This week it’s something which can increase your comissions by 400% or more.

The performance plan for Amazon is great – it gives you a fab tiered commission structure meaning the more you sell, the more you earn. There’s only one downside – On the Performance Plan, any Electrical items are capped at £7 commission, meaning if you sell a £1,000 TV, you get £7 commission (less than 1%).

If you sell the same TV through the Classic program however, you get a flat rate of 4%, meaning you’d pocket £40 commission – £33 more for the same product!  Let’s look at some figures:

option 1 Classic – 4% on all products…
sell a £100 tv, and get £4 commission
sell a £200 tv, and get £8 commission
sell a £500 tv, and get £20 commission
sell a £1000 tv and get £40 commission
option 2 – performance based, starts at 7.5% (for a direct link) but theres a £7 cap on electronics
sell a £100 tv, and get £7.00 commission (better than option one)
sell a £200 tv, and get £7.00 commission (worse than option one)
sell a £500 tv, and get £7.00 commission (worse than option one)
sell a £1000 tv and get £7.00 commission (over 400% less than on the Classic plan)

So what have we done?

Well, we’ve now set up ECU so that if you have seperate Amazon IDs for Classic and Performance, you can enter both of them into ECU, and the system will automatically use the best link for you.  It’ll use the performance link as default, however any items in the electrical category priced over £175.00 will automatically switch to the Classic plan, ensuring you don’t miss out the full commission for on any big ticket electrical items!

Check your Amazon IDs:

Log into ECU and on the ‘My Details’ page you’ll see that you can enter an ID for the performance plan (first box) and a different one for the Classic Plan (second box). It is set that electronics items (priced over £175) will show the classic ID (if entered) under/all other products will show performance plan ID.

Amazon products v 3rd Party Sellers

Affiliates have asked us to distinguish between products being sold by Amazon and those being sold by their 3rd Party Sellers.  You can now see by the logo in the search results this information, what’s more, if you click on the logo, you’ll be taken to the product page so you can check it’s the corrent item before adding it to your ECU.

If you have any other ideas for development of ECU, please send in a support ticket.