Have you ever wondered why are Hollywood and sports stars and other influencers in general are so highly paid? Sure, they owe a lot of their wealth to their prowess in their respective fields. However, a big chunk of their wealth also comes from advertisement. People like buying things that have been endorsed by their favorite influencer. Looking to capitalize upon the same trend, Amazon has rolled out the “Amazon Influencer Program” in beta. As the name implies, the new program offers influencers commissions on products that are sold via them.
This is very similar to Amazon’s affiliate program. Except that it is not open to the public and the scale of things will vary by a large margin. Also, while anyone can sign up to be an affiliate, the influencer program is very exclusive and you must submit a full-fledged application in order to be even considered for the role. The company will accept influencers that have a large following and will also take things like fan base and quality of posts into account. Another major factor will be the relevancy of that particular influencer to Amazon, so it is not certain that every influencer who applies to the program will be accepted.
The influencers that are selected will then be given a unique URL on the amazon platform. They can then redirect their fans and followers to the said URL by say, placing it under a YouTube video or embedding it in a Facebook post. Upon clicking, users are redirected to a page that consists of curated products recommended by their ideal and have the option of making a purchase. For every item that is purchased, the influencers receive a commission.
Interestingly, Amazon is not involving itself with the product selection process in any way. The influencers themselves get to decide what they want to market to their user — which is probably a good thing. I mean wouldn’t you be more likely to buy a guitar endorsed by Bryan Adams than a flower vase? Influencers will be able to chose what products they want on their curated products list and Amazon will not have any say in the matter.
The program has been live only for a couple of days or so, and only a few influencers have joined at present. Assuming that the tests prove to be successful, we can expect the company to roll the program out on a wider level.
