Publishers can make money from Amazon Prime Day through an affiliate marketing model, where they get a commission from Amazon from sales driven through links and ads on their sites. The commission rates differ based on the product category. None of the publishers interviewed for this article were willing to share their commission rates.

“What we know about our audience is that they love a deal. They love Amazon. And nothing that’s happening in the current climate has really done anything to dampen that enthusiasm and if anything, we’re just seeing that grow,” said Eve Epstein, svp and gm at Leaf Group property Hunker. “With things like inflation, people are probably more attuned to a deal than ever before.”

Prime Day sales up this year

• Total Amazon Prime Day sales were up 87% year-over-year for Hearst.
• At Leaf Group, revenue from the shopping event was up 130% year-over-year for home and lifestyle publication Hunker. Revenue grew 120% for wellness and lifestyle site Well+Good, and up 222% for health and wellness title Livestrong. “The smaller we were last year, the more we grew percentage-wise this year,” Epstein said.
• Future Publishing’s total U.S. sales from Amazon Prime Day deals were $26.4 million, though the company declined to disclose the percentage change year over year. People bought 347,000 products through Future’s properties during the Prime Day event this year, according to the company. The largest year-over-year increase was in the Kindle devices & accessories category, which was up 104% year-over-year. This was followed by sales in the kitchen and grocery category, which was up 96.4%, according to the company. TVs and home entertainment drove $4.9 million in sales for Future, followed by $4.6 million in the phones, cameras, & accessories category.
• Reviewed and Wirecutter declined to share sales figures, but are expected to be included in their respective earnings reports delivered in August.
• Reviewed’s gm Chris Lloyd said it was the site’s “biggest Prime Day ever” in terms of “total retail sales.” However, year-over-year growth was modest, in the single digits. Reviewed did see a “significant increase” in Amazon Prime Day fashion sales in particular, which went up 40% year-over-year for the publisher, Lloyd said.
• Wirecutter “reached and served dramatically more readers than we ever have,” said editor-in-chief Ben Frumin.

Inflation may have driven more sales

While many publishers drove sales of popular Apple products and other tech gadgets during Amazon’s Prime Day, some noticed differences in the items consumers were buying this year compared to last — …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron