Brief:
- Amazon this week started letting influencers earn a commission on the sales of products they feature in their livestreams. The e-commerce company added livestreaming to its Amazon Influencer Program that previously let influencers make money by directing their viewers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to Amazon's site, TechCrunch reported.
- The livestreaming platform for influencers is part of the company's Amazon Live service that streams from Amazon's site. Amazon Live's programming resembles home shopping channels like QVC. Hosts demonstrate products that appear in a carousel underneath the video, letting viewers click to purchase immediately, per TechCrunch.
- Influencers can set up a livestream by downloading the Amazon Live Creator app that's now available on Apple's App Store, per the Amazon Live web page. To livestream on Amazon, influencers need to belong to the Amazon Influencer Program, which requires approval from the company, based on a review of a candidate's number of followers and other engagement numbers on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
Insight:
Amazon's expansion of its Amazon Live platform to include influencers may help mobile marketers that run influencer campaigns to boost direct sales on the company's e-commerce platform. By letting influencers stream directly from Amazon Live, the company is helping to remove friction at the point of sale. People who watch their favorite influencers on other platforms like YouTube or Instagram have to click on a link that redirects to an e-commerce site, which may dissuade some viewers from making a purchase. Amazon is providing marketers a way to sell products that appear in influencer livestreams within its platform, which has millions of registered accounts worldwide.
For Amazon, the expansion of Amazon Live to influencers can help the company expand its programming among a wider audience. The company didn't disclose its commission structure, though it most likely creates an incentive for influencers to create livestreams on Amazon Live, in addition to the content they create on other platforms like YouTube and Instagram that have massive audiences and their own programs to help influencers monetize their creative efforts. With its expansion to influencers, Amazon Live can capture more of those audiences on its site, giving it a chance to cross-sell other products and boost the average ticket size.
The expansion of Amazon Live to influencers is the latest step in the platform's development. The company launched the livestreaming platform in February 2019, when it also introduced Amazon Live Creator, an app that let brands stream video content directly on the site. Amazon Live followed other video-centric offerings such as the introduction of "sponsored" video placements for Prime Pantry that showed product commercials.
The move comes months after Amazon tightened its affiliate program, cutting several third-party vendors and cutting commissions for a number of categories.
