Compare Amazon and Flipkart affiliate programs - Which is better for Indian publishers?
Are you trying to figure out which is the best affiliate program in India? In this post, I am comparing Amazon and Flipkart affiliate programs and am trying to help you choose the best one.
Flipkart has been the most popular online shop in India for several years. In June 2013, Amazon launched its India marketplace, "Amazon.in", offering limited number of items like books, movies and television shows for sale. Slowly, they expanded to other sales channels and currently they offer thousands of items including kitchen items, toys, jewelry, gadgets, electronics and so on.
Flipkart has been offering their affiliate programs for last few years. Bloggers who wanted to make money through affiliate programs only had limited options in India. Flipkart affiliate program was considered to be one of the lowest paid affiliate programs in the country, however, since publishers had not many other options, most of them used them to make some money recommending Flipkart products through their blogs. It was easy to recommend and sell their products since they offer the best deals for consumers in India.
Personally, I have reviewed and compared many affiliate programs in India, even though I myself do not make much money out of it. One of the biggest challenges in making money from affiliate programs is, you may have to recommend many products that really shouldn't be recommended. I am not very good at doing that.
Affiliate programs: Flipkart vs Amazon
Let us come back to the topic and see which one is better for Indian bloggers and webmasters.
Flipkart has been offering very low commission to its affiliate partners earlier. For example, by referring customers to buy a computer, bloggers would get just 0.5% commission from them and up to 1% for many other electronic products and gadgets.
Many bloggers and webmasters have been eagerly waiting for Amazon to enter the Indian market since their commission structure is very good in USA and UK. When Amazon.in marketplace was launched in India, it was a tough competition for Flipkart to keep its market lead. Consumers started receiving good deals while the top 2 players competing each other started offering great discounts for many products.
In June 2013, Amazon affiliate program was launched for Indian publishers with a much better commission structure compared to the existing Flipkart commission structure. Since then, many bloggers switched to Amazon instead of promoting Flipkart products.
Within a few weeks after Amazon launched its affiliate program in India, Flipkart significantly increased their commission structure to compete with its new rival, making it a tough decision for bloggers to choose.
Here is a comparison sheet of the latest commissions structure offered by both the brands:
Comparison of Amazon and Flipkart affiliate commission structures
Even though Flipkart increased the commissions up to 16 times for certain categories like Electronics, they are still lower than Amazon commission in respective categories. Even with the new commission structure, Amazon still offers about 20% higher affiliate commission. The only category where Flipkart has an advantage is the eBooks category where they offer 15% commission. On the other hand, Amazon gives no commission for any eBook purchases for Kindle.Compare payment options
Before I conclude, let us take a quick look at the payment options in both the programs.
Amazon associate program offers monthly payments. Typically, you will get the payment for any items sold through your affiliate links within 60 days from the month it was sold. Minimum payment threshold for cheque payments is Rs 2,500, even though you can set higher thresholds.
Flipkart offers 2 payment modes:
1. Gift vouchers
2. Electronic Funds Transfer
In case of gift vouchers, the payment threshold is Rs 250 and in case of EFT, it is Rs 2,500. There is no option to set a custom threshold. Payments are made approximately 45 days after the month of sale, compared to the 60 day payment delay in Amazon.in
Both the companies will deduct 10% TDS unless you submit a TDS waiver certificate.Which affiliate program is better - Amazon or Flipkart?
Here is my recommendation. Don't to with a single program. Even if one offers better commission than the other, it is of no use if the items you promote are sold at a better deal on some other site. What you have to consider is the conversions. It is of no use if your referral link is not converting to a sale. If the products are sold at a lower price in Flipkart, then it is better to promote the Flipkart link, even if they offer lower commission to you.
Here are few points to consider before you choose the affiliate program to promote in your website:
1. Which e-Commerce website is selling the item at a lower price, which has the highest chances of conversion. Go for the one with the lowest price and best deals to consumers.
2. If all brands offer the products at the same price, then choose the program with the best commission, which is Amazon associate program in most cases.
Considering the higher commission rates for associates and better deals offered for the consumers, I recommend Amazon associate program. However, the case may be different for different people. If your readers have higher chances of buying from Flipkart or if you are promoting the products that are usually sold at a lower price in Flipkart, you may want to consider that program instead of Amazon.
Read: Amazon is offering a special promotion for holidays and now affiliates can get 15% commission for all non-electronic categories.
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Hi Tony,
It is good to see the detailed comparison of Amazon affiliate program and Flipkart affiliate program. With Amazon's entry in India, we can clearly see a different strategy being adopted by Flipkart. Like you suggested, it is a big advantage for bloggers to try Amazon affiliate program because of various reasons as listed under:
-Amazon affiliate program (Amazon affiliates) is quite successful globally (for their UK and US versions) and so it's Indian affiliate program can be easily trusted.
-Amazon offers better commission rates as compared to Flipkart, who have only recently increased the commission rates and still fall behind Amazon.