Amazon.co.uk Associates - geo-sensitive?
As mentioned, I signed up with Amazon.co.uk Associates Programme. I was impressed with their interface, very easy to use and easy to implement links to products. But then I realised that all the links were hard coded to Amazon.co.uk. Now the beauty of the internet, as you probably know, is the fact that it gives ordinary Joes like me a global platform.
Amazon have stores in countries all over the world, so I wondered if maybe there was something in the links that made them geo-sensitive. But I didn't think so.
So I contacted Amazon support with the following email:
And I got a reply. The useful part of the reply went as follows:
The mail went on to describe how to add a direct link to product as per normal as I guess they misunderstood question no.2 and question no.3 was just ignored. I don't know about you, but geo-sensitivity would work for me. Seems like an awful lot of work to have to create two links every time to cater for European and US visitors. Surely this is something Amazon must be thinking about?
If you stumble accross this post and think a geo-sensitive Amazon Associates Programme is a good/bad idea, please comment - or, better again if you think it's a good idea email the Associates Program and tell them!
Amazon have stores in countries all over the world, so I wondered if maybe there was something in the links that made them geo-sensitive. But I didn't think so.
So I contacted Amazon support with the following email:
Hi,
Frank Prendergast here from 9mmfilm.com, I have recently implemented Amazon associate links on my site. I was wondering about the uk/us issue - the web being a global marketplace as it were, us visitors to my site are more likely to buy from Amazon.com while Irish/UK visitors are more likely to buy from Amazon.co.uk. Currently the links I create seem to link only to .co.uk.
So my questions are:
1. If someone in the us wanted to buy the product but not from Amazon.co.uk what could they do and would I earn commission?
2. Is there any way within the Amazon Associates program to dynamically send people to a direct link based on location?
3. If not is this a feature you might consider implementing? I believe it would increase sales through the Associates program.
Many thanks,
Frank
And I got a reply. The useful part of the reply went as follows:
At this time, the Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp and Amazon.com Associate programmes are completely separate. Each needs to be applied to and joined separately, and you will have a different ID for each.
In addition, links formatted for one programme will not be able to earn you commission at the other site.
We believe, however, that it makes a lot of sense to participate in multiple programmes. You can thus have multiple 'buy' buttons next to each book, one labeled for your American visitors and the other for your British and European visitors.
The mail went on to describe how to add a direct link to product as per normal as I guess they misunderstood question no.2 and question no.3 was just ignored. I don't know about you, but geo-sensitivity would work for me. Seems like an awful lot of work to have to create two links every time to cater for European and US visitors. Surely this is something Amazon must be thinking about?
If you stumble accross this post and think a geo-sensitive Amazon Associates Programme is a good/bad idea, please comment - or, better again if you think it's a good idea email the Associates Program and tell them!
5 Comments:
The only way round it at the moment is to provide links to as many Amazon sites as possible and join all their affiliate programs.
I've joined five out of six so far:
.com
.ca
.co.uk
.fr
.de
Using a bit of hackery I managed to create links to a number of them at a time, but you still cannot overcome one basic issue - ISBN / ASIN numbers.
I think there is a solution to this that one could implement, but I haven't had time to investigate yet... but an idea is forming in my little brain. If I can get it done I'll post about it.
What do you mean regarding issues of ISBN / ASIN - why is that a problem? I believe ISBN/ASIN numbers are constant for any given product.
Care to share a url to show how you, or anyone else, handle it at the mo?
Cheers!
ASIN's aren't always a constant unfortunately.
The US edition of a book, cd or dvd may carry a different ASIN reference to the one available from the UK.
I've got an example of multiple links at:
http://www.dannymorrison.com/catalogue/
it's not pretty, but it works :)
Michele
I wonder how much of an issue that is though - in my tests nearly all items had constant ASIN numbers. However as you say sometimes there are differing editions, but I came across cases where there were indeed different editions, but Amazon.com had both editions available.
The implementation you link to here must be a real pain in the ass to implement every time... but as you say, it works. Do you have any links to the hacks you mentioned?
I would love to try to develop a solution which checked location and constructed a url based on that... pass the solution the asin number and have the ids and the base urls dynamically inserted. But time time time... plus I'm not a programmer which makes it a much bigger task for me then it might be for others.
There are free country detectors out there - http://ipdb.web-heaven.com/scripts.php for example which might be a good starting point.
The "hack" I'm using is an implementation of Gossamer links with a number of changes in its structure etc.
I wouldn't worry too much about doing a geo-specific link as some people will order from the US regardless of where they are located :) (at least I do!)
The ASIN thing is a PITA with DVDs and videos in particular (obvious reasons for that), but it can hit books etc., as well. If you dig around the site I gave you a link to you'll see that some of them give errors.
It's not that painful to maintain tbh, as all it does is parse the URL with the ASIN and you hope for the best ie. I know it's not 100% accurate, but I can't really do anything about that
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