Ahead Of Festive Sale, Amazon Increases Commissions Of Its 50,000 Influencers

In a bid to shore up its sales during its upcoming festive season, ecommerce major Amazon has increased the commissions of more than 50,000 creators who are part of the influencer marketing network. 

In a statement, Amazon India said that payouts under the revised structure will increase in the range of 1.5X to 2X for “active” creators across product categories such as fashion, beauty and personal care appliances, home, kitchen, toys, among others.

While the commissions for categories such as fashion and luggages will increase to 9% from 5% previously, the commission payable to online celebs in the sports equipment category will jump to 7.5% from 2.5%.

Besides, the ecommerce major will now also offer “target-linked incentives” of up to 10% to 15% (of revenue generated) for influencers that drive sales. 

“By significantly increasing commission rates across key categories and offering additional resources through programs like Creator University and Creator Connect, we’re providing creators with the tools and incentives they need to thrive during the festive season and beyond..,” said Amazon’s director of shopping initiatives for India and emerging markets Zahid Khan.

With this, Amazon is looking at leveraging the fan base of these content creators to bring more users to its ecommerce platform. The move comes just days ahead of the company’s flagship annual festive season sale, Great Indian Festival.

The sale kicks off on September 27, but Prime subscribers will get access to the event 24-hours prior to the others.

Locked in a tight battle with Flipkart for supremacy in the Indian ecommerce market, the US-based ecommerce has rolled out a slew of new offerings and incentives in the run up to the event. 

Last week, it launched three new fulfilment centres in Delhi NCR, Guwahati and Patna to cater to over 2.5 Lakh sellers. Amazon India also slashed the selling fees for merchants in the range of 3% to 12% across various product categories just weeks earlier.

It also announced the full-fledged roll out of its AI chatbot Rufus in India last week.

The new launches come at a time when Amazon India has been grappling with leadership issues and regulatory challenges. Just a week ago, Sameer Kumar took over the reins of India operations after Manish Tiwary’s recent exit. 

Additionally, the ecommerce major has also been lagging in terms of its ecommerce foray even when its biggest rival, Flipkart, has already debuted in the segment with Minutes. 

On the regulatory front, the company has reportedly been found guilty of violating antitrust norms by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The watchdog reportedly found that the company allegedly prioritised certain sellers and listings, in violation of local competition laws. 

Just a day ago, the CCI directed the company to furnish turnover details to decide the penalty amount for flouting competition laws.