Amazon Affiliate India Program & Amalinks Pro®: Do They Work Together?Yes, we do!
Bloggers and affiliates can make money with the Amazon Associate India program and AmaLinks Pro®.
India is a truly vast country, replete with a powerful economy, and a very bright future. In terms of population, India is the second-largest country in the world with a staggering 1.3 billion people calling it home. And with an increasingly large percentage of that population being internet savvy, right now is an exceptionally good time to plug into this burgeoning affiliate marketing industry so you can make money online.
Whether you’re completely new to affiliate marketing and signing up for your first affiliate programs, or more experienced with multiple affiliate websites already and looking to add Amazon’s India Associate program to your existing online revenue channels, then this article and Amazon affiliate marketing is for you.
Below I’ll explain everything you need to know about the Amazon India affiliate program, and why right now is an incredibly opportune time to sign up…
The Amazon affiliate India program is a way for website owners to refer traffic from a special affiliate link on their website to the Amazon India store, and earn a commission from any qualifying sales.
In order to see how best your business can plug into the Amazon affiliate India program, it’s useful to understand the broader picture.
Amazon first launched in India in June 2013, receiving more than 10,000 orders on its first day. Prime membership was added in 2016 and already has over 10 million users. And today, Amazon India is one of the leading eCommerce platforms in the country, creating over a million local jobs in the process.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos certainly feels that eCommerce in India has an incredible future, saying during his January 202o visit:
I predict the 21st century will be the Indian century. This country has dynamism and energy and everywhere I go here we see there is an improvement in growth. This country has something special. (Source)
So, regardless of the niche that your online business focuses on, the Amazon India store will have both relevant products to recommend and a growing pool of active customers. This makes the Amazon affiliate program in India a fantastic way for any website owner to earn commissions from Amazon to generate income for themselves.
India sits 8th on the retail eCommerce sales list, with revenue in 2020 of $55bn. The intriguing statistic here though is that sales grew by 22% in 2021 – the biggest percentage increase in the world. This strongly suggests that the online shopping trend in India is destined to keep increasing as this massive country and huge population jump on board the eCommerce train.
The India Brand Equity Foundation suggests the following incredible projection:
The Indian E-commerce industry has been on an upward growth trajectory and is expected to surpass the US to become the second largest E-commerce market in the world by 2034. India e-commerce sector will reach US$99 billion by 2024 from US$ 30 billion in 2019, expanding at a 27% CAGR*.
*compound annual growth rate – the annualized average rate of revenue growth between two given years.
This staggering projection of growth is largely attributed to two specific factors – increasing internet and smartphone penetration within the country.
A quick look at this report comparing the age demographics of online shoppers at two of India’s largest online grocery stores shows the incredible statistic that around 80% of those customers are between the ages of 18 and 34.
And as the younger generation grow up and become young adults themselves, digital uptake – and thus eCommerce – will certainly grow with it. If we combine all of these factors this means that right now presents an incredible opportunity to carve out an affiliate marketing niche in this exciting online marketplace.
To better understand the current situation, let’s take a closer look at the eCommerce model in India.
Amazon has arguably its toughest foe in India, with Flipkart currently leading the line in eCommerce sales. Owned by Walmart, according to Eurasian Times Flipkart took a 31.9% slice of India’s eCommerce market in 2020 compared to Amazon’s 31.2% – it could hardly be more fierce!
In India, Flipkart has a registered customer base of over 300 million with over 150 million products spread across more than 80 categories. With this kind of firepower, it’s easy to see how Flipkart has become the leading online retailer.
In 2014 Flipkart bought the online fashion and lifestyle company Myntra for around $280million, and, due to its big customer base, it continues to operate as a stand-alone brand.
In addition to Flipkart, there’s also a strong cluster of other companies all vying for an increased share in the market, too:
Whilst eBay will need no introduction, there are some other names on the list that may not be so familiar to those living outside of India. Grofers and Bigbasket are both large and established online grocery stores delivering to many of the largest Indian cities.
Launched in December 2019, JioMart is a relative newcomer to the Indian eCommerce sector. Owned by Mukesh Ambani – not just the richest man in India, but the richest man in Asia and the 10th richest in the world – JioMart delivers grocery and daily essentials from nearby stores and is definitely going to play a huge role in the growth of the industry.
Undeterred by the stiff competition, Amazon has invested over $6.5billion to capture more of the market, especially in the fierce arena of online grocery shopping. In April 2020, Amazon launched its Local Shops program in India, allowing customers to place orders directly from their local neighborhood stores. The program now spans over 450 Indian cities, with in excess of 50,000 sellers.
So now that we understand a little more about how Amazon fits into the India eCommerce market, let’s take a deeper look at what the commission rates are for the Amazon affiliate program in India.
Like Amazon’s affiliate programs the world over, the commission rates with the Amazon affiliate India program vary from category to category. Rates also change frequently and so it’s best to never choose a niche purely based on the commission rate. Changing rates are simply a part of affiliate marketing – it’s best to get your head around the fact that they will inevitably happen, rather than to fear them!
Here are the Fixed Standard Program Commission Rates for Specific Product Categories.
Updated March 2021
| Product Category
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Fixed Advertising Rates
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(source)
From what we learned above regarding the fiercely competitive online grocery sector, it will come as no surprise to see that Amazon offers a very competitive 8% commission rate to encourage affiliates in the Grocery / Pantry category to point their audiences at amazon.in
Kitchen Appliances as well as Houseware, Furniture, Outdoors, and DIY and Tools all have high commission rates too, as Amazon seeks to grow its influence in these product categories.
Almost all other categories fit into the 5-6% commission rate bracket, with just a few sectors dropping below this. Coupled with the growing number of Amazon shoppers, all of this means that the Amazon India affiliate program is a highly attractive platform for affiliate marketers to explore.
If you’re not based in India but find your content is attracting readers from there, then you could be missing out on those international commissions.
Let’s say you’re already a member of the Amazon US affiliate marketing program, but you realize from your analytics that a portion of your audience is from India. When those readers click your US-specific Amazon affiliate links, they will not automatically be redirected to the India store, which means that you may not earn a commission on those referrals.
The way to fix this is simple.
Once you’ve signed up to your new Amazon affiliate account, you need to ensure that your US and India Amazon Associates accounts are linked together. We recommend Geniuslink for this. When a user clicks an Amazon affiliate link in your content, Geniuslink automatically directs each user to the most relevant store for them, whilst keeping your affiliate link intact.
To ensure you’re not leaving money on the table, check out our in-depth look at link localization here.
How much you earn through your Amazon Associates India program is really down to you. How much work are you able to put in? Some niche sites earn over $10,000 per month, others less than $10. Building successful affiliate sites is hard work – don’t let anyone tell you it’s passive income! Affiliate marketing all comes down to how much quality content you are able to produce, how many visitors you can attract to your site, and how good you are at converting those visitors into customers.
AmaLinks Pro® is an incredibly powerful Amazon Affiliate WordPress plugin that helps you to convert those readers into customers. It connects to your Amazon Associates account, allowing you to create different types of Amazon affiliate links with ease – without having to go into your Amazon Associates dashboard. And the great news is it works perfectly with the Amazon affiliate India program!
Offering a suite of different link options including product showcases, comparison tables, and fully customizable CTA buttons, AmaLinks Pro® is an investment that can pay for itself quickly! And we can prove it…
One of the real benefits of AmaLinks Pro® is that all of the features work even if you don’t have access to Amazon’s API. When you first sign up for the Amazon Associates India program, you won’t have API access until you hit the magic number of 3 sales in 180 days. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t use AmaLinks Pro®’s powerful features to help you generate more clicks through to Amazon.
Check out this post for more details on how to use AmaLinks Pro® without the API.
The way product links are presented can have a huge impact on earnings. Converting a standard text link to a much more impactful product box is a far better way to promote products, get a higher click-through rate, and thus increase sales. And to prove it, Matt has been doing some A/B comparison testing on live websites to show what a difference using AmaLinks Pro®’s classy product boxes and showcases can make versus a basic text link.
Results so far have shown increases in CTR of between 256% and a whopping 384%.
Check out these customer case studies. All three customers were able to increase the number of people clicking their Amazon affiliate links INSTANTLY by using the AmaLinks Pro® Product Showcase Boxes and Product Comparison Tables.
Check out this case study where we increased a customer’s click-through-rate by over 256% using our product showcase boxes!
Here is another case study where using our product showcase boxes resulted in a 386% increase in Amazon Affiliate link clicks for one of our users.
On one of our customer’s full product review style posts, we increased the click-through-rate by a whopping 263%!
Signing up for the Amazon affiliate India program is both free and easy – and you don’t have to be based in India to sign up. But before you do, it’s important to get the foundations in place. Amazon affiliate marketing can be fun and very lucrative.
Get your website built and fully functional – utilizing a WordPress blog is by far the best way to create blog posts and really flesh out your Amazon affiliate website. The plethora of incredible plug-ins for WordPress can help your online business to really take off quickly.
Once the bones of your website are made, it’s time to add content. I’d suggest you need at the very least 10 high-quality, original blog posts. At this point, be sure to spend the time doing keyword research so that those first posts give you the maximum chance of getting some eyeballs on them. Also, leverage your social media sites to direct people to your affiliate website. The faster you attract some readers, the faster you can move onto the next step…
When you have some content uploaded, it’s time to look at your analytics to see just how many visitors you’re getting. If your analytics tell you your site is getting at least some regular visitors, now is the time to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program in India and start to earn money from your content. Although you can sign up for an affiliate account at any time, Amazon specifies that new Associates have to make 3 qualifying sales in a 180 day period before the Amazon Associates account becomes active.
So, if you sign up to the program before you have any regular readers, your chances of making those qualifying sales are low, regardless of how enticing your affiliate links look.
See Amazon’s guidance for more on the application review process.
Once you’re all signed up, go through your content and add affiliate links to refer your readers to the products you recommend on the Amazon store. AmaLinks Pro® can really help your product links to look professional and enticing. Check out all of the fantastic benefits here.
The fertile conditions currently strongly suggest a very exciting future for eCommerce in India. It really feels that the industry is starting to accelerate rapidly, with huge growth both predicted and expected.
So if your content is attracting readers from India and you’ve not yet joined the Amazon affiliate program in India, then sign up today – it couldn’t be easier. For websites looking to use affiliate marketing to earn money online, the Amazon associate program really is one of the best ways to get started.
Whichever camp you fall into, there’s a stack of useful content on the AmaLinks Pro® blog that has been written to help you achieve your goals.
