Amazon Netherlands launches their affiliate program

Update 05/28/20: We have finally received PA API access for Amazon.nl, which means that we will now automatically localize and affiliate any Amazon links to or from the Amazon Netherlands storefront! See below for more details.

On March 10th, 2020 we noticed that Amazon added an affiliate program to its only storefront that didn’t have one — Amazon Netherlands (amazon.nl)!  “Amazon PartnerNet” as it’s officially known brings the total number of Amazon affiliate programs worldwide to 17 (16 of which are public and Turkey that is invite-only).   

As we noticed with the launch of the Amazon Singapore affiliate program in the fall of 2019, it’s really great to see Amazon launching a storefront-specific affiliate program in tandem with the launch of a new storefront/marketplace.  I think this speaks highly for Amazon’s dedication to its affiliate program. Further, reading between the lines, it shows us how important the affiliate program is to Amazon when getting a new storefront/marketplace up to speed in a new market.  

Amazon Netherlands

The Amazon.nl storefront initially launched in late 2014 but was a digital-only storefront selling ebooks and, more recently, Prime Video.  March 10th was also the launch of a marketplace (third-party sellers) for Amazon.nl, which significantly expanded the buying options for the regional ecommerce store.  The addition of the marketplace to the Amazon.nl storefront brings with it an additional 24 major product categories, bringing the grand total up to 26. The total number of products being offered is reported at over 100 million!    

The major e-commerce players that have traditionally supported the Dutch market include local players Bol.com, Coolblue and Wehkamp, as well as Amazon.de, the Germany based Amazon storefront and the largest Amazon store in Europe. 

Amazon Affiliate Program for Amazon.nl

The Amazon affiliate program dashboard for the Netherlands is presented in Dutch thus making it a bit more challenging for us non-Dutch speaking affiliate marketers.  The easy trick here is to use the built-in translation available from Google Chrome. Besides the language difference, the dashboard is essentially a carbon copy of dashboards for the other Amazon affiliate programs so even without browser-based translation you should be able to navigate and use the dashboard with your eyes closed.

The Amazon.nl PartnerNet program’s Operating Agreement and Program Policies are in English making them much easier to compare to the Amazon.com equivalent.  After a quick review, nearly everything looks identical to the gold standard Amazon.com Associates program’s Operating Agreement and Program Policies.  However, there are a few minor differences, namely localization exceptions, payment options, and commission rates. 

Signing Up For the Amazon Netherlands Affiliate Program

Traditionally, we recommend that if you see more than a few percent of your traffic coming from the Netherlands, or guess you’d have more than a few hundred clicks a month we would encourage you to sign up for the Amazon affiliate program in the Netherlands.  However, there is a minor hiccup with that.    

The signup process for the Amazon.nl PartnerNet program is nearly identical to any of the other Amazon affiliate programs with one exception.  In an early step, when providing your name and address, the application will only accept addresses from one of 11 European countries.

This is atypical!

For the majority of the Amazon affiliate programs, your location—as a Creator/Publisher—is inconsequential. 

Single Affiliate Payment Option

Another oddity we noticed in reviewing the Amazon.nl affiliate program is that they currently only support a single type of payment for the program – direct deposit – compared to the standard three options we’re used to seeing (which include a gift card or paper check).  However, we noticed the same thing with the Amazon Singapore affiliate program launch, so this could be the new normal.  

However, where Amazon Singapore would payout to nearly 50 countries via direct deposit, the number of countries that are eligible for direct deposit (or any payment at all) for the Netherlands affiliate program is again limited to the same 11 countries in Europe (Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain). 

If you do not have a bank account in one of these 11 countries then you’ll need an international direct deposit solution, such as Payoneer, to receive your monthly commission checks. 

Amazon Netherlands Commission Rates

The Amazon.nl affiliate commission rates do NOT follow the “Qualified / Non-Qualified Purchase” format that the other five European Associates programs are currently using.  

Rather, for sales referred to the Amazon.nl storefront, your commissions are determined using the “Fixed Fee for Specific Product Categories” format that Amazon.com uses. 

As a reminder, the Fixed fee model defines specific commissions per category where the Qualified / Non-Qualified model pays different percentages for certain categories based on volume, if the link was a search result based link, or if the actual sale was in a different category than what was actually bought.   

At first glance, it appears that the Amazon.nl affiliate team is looking to make a splash as the commission rates are quite high!  

For comparison, the highest commissions paid in the US are at a max of 10% and for only two categories (Amazon Coins and Luxury Beauty) whereas Amazon.nl has a whopping seven categories at 14%!  Comparing the two programs, the average commission rate for the Amazon.com affiliate program is 4.18% (across 57 categories) and Amazon.nl is more than double that at 9.76% (across 42 categories)!  Fingers crossed these rates hold. 

To further compare the commission rates between these two stores we broke them down on a per-category basis.  

Category
Amazon.nl Commission Rate
Amazon.com Commission Rate
Difference

Clothing
14%
4%
(Apparel)
10.00%

Shoes
14%
4.0%
10.00%

Jewelry
14%
4.0%
10.00%

Watches
14%
4.0%
10.00%

Luggage
14%
4.0%
10.00%

Amazon Fashion Women
14%
4.0%
10.00%

Men & Kids Private Label
14%
4.0%
10.00%

Digital Video Games
10%
2.0%
8.00%

DVD & Blu-Ray
10%
2.5%
7.50%

Toys
10%
3.0%
7.00%

Amazon Devices: Kindle and Echo Devices, Fire Accessories
10%
4.0%
6.00%

Kindle eBooks
10%
4%
(via All Other Categories)
6.00%

Software
10%
4%
(via All Other Categories)
6.00%

Stationery & Office Supplies
10%
4%
(via All Other Categories)
6.00%

Books
10%
4.5%
5.50%

Kitchen
10%
4.5%
5.50%

Sports
10%
4.5%
5.50%

Personal Care Appliances
10%
4.5%
5.50%

Health & Personal Care
10%
4.5%
5.50%

Baby
10%
4.5%
5.50%

Car & Motorbike
10%
4.5%
5.50%

Music
10%
5.0%
5.00%

Food and Drinks
10%
5%
(via Grocery)
5.00%

Handmade
10%
5.0%
5.00%

Grocery
10%
5.0%
5.00%

Video Games
6%
1%
(via Physical Video Games)
5.00%

Outdoor
10%
5.5%
4.50%

Musical Instruments
10%
6.0%
4.00%

Business Industrial & Scientific Products
10%
6.0%
4.00%

Beauty
10%
6.0%
4.00%

Computer
6%
2.5%
(via PC)
3.50%

Home
10%
8.0%
2.00%

Home Improvement
10%
8.0%
2.00%

Pet Products
10%
8.0%
2.00%

Lawn and Garden
10%
8.0%
2.00%

Home Entertainment
6%
4%
(via All Other Categories)
2.00%

Smartphones and Mobile Phones
6%
4%
(via All Other Categories)
2.00%

Electronics
6%
4%
(via All Other Categories)
2.00%

Camera
6%
4%
(via All Other Categories)
2.00%

Digital Software
6%
4%
(via All Other Categories)
2.00%

Gift Cards
0%
0.0%
0.00%

All other Product Categories
6%
4.0%
2.00%

How to Identify an Amazon.nl Affiliate Link

Affiliate links for Amazon Netherlands follow the same format as the other five Amazon affiliate programs in Europe with the key of “tag=” followed by a string of characters that end with “-21”.  For example “example039-21”

Product Advertising API Support 

Unlike the rollout of the Amazon.sg affiliate program, it’s great to see that the Amazon.nl affiliate team has made the Product Advertising API (v5) available at launch!  While the API still requires at least three sales before you are allowed a query limit it is great to see it at least being accessible from the launch.  

Amazon Netherlands OneLink Support

Similar to the many other new Amazon affiliate programs (India, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Singapore) Amazon’s link translation tool, OneLink, does not support Amazon.nl. Therefore, Amazon.nl affiliate links posted to your site won’t be localized for any international traffic, and when Amazon.com (or elsewhere) links are clicked from the Netherlands, they won’t redirect to Amazon.nl.  You’ll need a better solution if you are looking to monetize your Dutch clicks as part of your global Amazon affiliate strategy.

Unfortunately, due to our unique situation as a user of the PA API but not an active Amazon affiliate publisher, we have a few extra hurdles we have to clear before we get access to the new Amazon storefront API endpoints.  We’ve been diligently working on these requirements and are optimistic that we can have full access within the next week or so. Once we obtain access to those API endpoints we’ll be able to roll out product link translation support in a matter of a day or two.  

As of May 28th 2020, we now offer full localization and affiliation support for the Amazon Netherlands storefront.

Once you have signed up for the program, you can easily add your Amazon.nl Associates ID to the affiliate page in your Geniuslink dashboard, and we’ll automatically include your Associates ID on any clicks from the Netherlands.

Additionally, we have also just released localization support for for Amazon.nl, to ensure that any of your customers clicking from the Netherlands are sent to the correct product in their local storefront. This means that your customers will get the best experience possible, and you will earn the affiliate commissions you deserve for any purchases that are made! You can also now create links inside of your Geniuslink Dashboard directly from the Amazon.nl storefront, and we will ensure that those too are properly localized to any of the other Amazon storefronts.

Conclusion 

Amazon is on a roll in launching new affiliate programs!  It’s exciting to see Amazon continue to expand its international affiliate presence as it rolls out new affiliate programs across the globe. We enjoy watching them grow because it generates opportunities for content creators. It’s even more exciting to see that Amazon prioritizes the simultaneous release of an affiliate program to support its newest regional marketplace.

It will be interesting to witness where in the world the next Amazon affiliate program launches.  Israel? Argentina? Where would you place your bet?

As ever, we’re eager to hear from you! Got any questions about the Amazon Netherlands Affiliate Program or observations about the new program we may have missed? Don’t hesitate to speak up in the comments below.

Originally posted: 03/19/20