Amazon.eg + Amazon Associates Program for Egypt
- September 7, 2023
In early August, 2021, we saw the first hints of Amazon launching it’s newest storefront and affiliate program – Amazon Egypt. Suffice to say, we were excited!
So when the announcement came in early September 2021 that Amazon’s 21st storefront, Amazon Egypt (amazon.eg) was going live, we were anticipating a new Amazon affiliate program (and thus an opportunity for our clients to further monetize even more of their international traffic!) wouldn’t be too far behind. From the last few launches (Poland, Sweden, Netherlands, for example), the Associates program launched the same day or shortly after the storefront launched; why would Amazon Egypt be any different?
We were confused when October rolled around, and while the Associates’ splash page was up, there wasn’t a signup button! After a bit of digging and a few emails, we found what was up — Like Amazon.tr (Turkey), the new Egyptian Amazon store’s affiliate program was private and invitation only. This means that of the 21 Amazon storefronts worldwide, 19 of them have public affiliate programs (that, for the most part, anyone can sign up for) and two private programs (invite-only and typically limited to only affiliate publishers based in that country).
Amazon Egypt
September 1st, 2021 saw Souq.com, the Middle Eastern e-commerce retailer that Amazon bought for over half a billion dollars in 2017, relaunching as Amazon.eg. Like the 20 regional storefronts Amazon has launched prior, Amazon.eg is a dedicated online store for customers in Egypt.
Unlike some previous launches, the Amazon Egypt launched featured a deep product catalog including millions of items from local and international brands. Amazon.eg started selling products across electronics, apparel, home and kitchen, grocery, and their own Amazon products and Devices categories.
It’s no surprise that Amazon Egypt follows the same playbook as their other region-specific storefronts with a focus on providing a good shopping experience to customers with low prices, wide selection, easy payment, and fast and reliable delivery.
Amazon.eg offers both English and Arabic and lets shoppers pay in Egyptian Pounds (EGP) using credit, debit, and prepaid cards, including Visa and Mastercard, in addition to the option of cash on delivery (COD).
Amazon Affiliate Program for Amazon.eg
Private! Invite only!
While a bit of a buzzkill for all of us outside of Egypt who have some portion of our audience coming from the middle eastern country, we are assured it’s a temporary thing with the end goal of moving to be a public affiliate program that (almost) anyone can join. While we have no timeline on when this might happen (and won’t even try and guess), we believe this is still a good thing and shows Amazon’s dedication to the affiliate channel.
While the splash page for the Amazon Egypt affiliate program looks just like every other one, you’ll notice that there is no ability to “Sign up” only to “Sign in.”
You may also notice that you have to navigate directly to the Amazon Egypt affiliate program splash page, unlike every other public Associates program, Egypt isn’t listed in the dropdown.
Unfortunately, with the private nature of the Amazon Egypt affiliate program, we don’t have a lot of insight we can share on the commission rates or other nuances specific to the Egypt program.
However, we do know that if you are an Amazon Associate with a larger audience, especially of shoppers based in Egypt, AND you have been assigned an Amazon Associates account manager, your odds are much higher for an invitation. Be sure to reach out to your account manager to start a discussion. Sorry, we can’t help you!
How to Identify an Amazon.eg Affiliate Link
Affiliate links for Amazon Egypt follow the same format as the other European and Middle Easter Amazon affiliate programs with the key of “tag=” followed by a string of characters that end with “-21”. For example “trackingid039-21.”
https://www.amazon.eg/gp/product/1785031139/?tag=trackingid039-21
Product Advertising API Support
Similar to the more recent Amazon affiliate program launches, it’s great to see that the Amazon.eg affiliate team has made the Product Advertising API (v5) available at launch! While the API still requires an active Associates account, with at least three sales before you are allowed a query limit, it is great to see it at least being accessible.
Amazon OneLink Support for Egypt
Similar to the many other new Amazon affiliate programs (India, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, etc.) Amazon’s link translation tool, OneLink, does not support Amazon.eg.
Therefore, Amazon.eg affiliate links posted to your site won’t be localized for any international traffic, and when Amazon.com (or elsewhere) links are clicked from Egypt, they won’t redirect to Amazon.eg. You’ll need a better solution if you are looking to monetize your Egyptian clicks as part of your global Amazon affiliate strategy.
Geniuslink Support for Amazon Egypt
As of February 7th, 2022, we now offer complete localization and affiliation support for the Amazon Egypt storefront.
If you are one of the lucky ones to get access to this affiliate program, you can easily add your Amazon.eg Associates ID to the affiliate page in your Geniuslink dashboard, and we’ll automatically include your Associates ID on any clicks from Egypt.
Additionally, we have localization support for Amazon.eg, to ensure that any of your customers clicking from Egypt are sent to the correct product in their local storefront.
This means that your customers will get the best shopping experience possible! You can also now create links inside of your Geniuslink Dashboard directly from the Amazon.eg storefront, and we will ensure that those too are properly localized to any of the other Amazon storefronts.
Conclusion
While definitely a bummer that this newest Associates program is private, it is exciting to see Amazon continue to expand its international affiliate presence as it rolls out new storefronts and affiliate programs across the globe.
We continue to enjoy watching them grow the global Associates program as it generates opportunities for creators to monetize their international followings better.
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! Do you have any questions about the Amazon Egypt storefront /(private) affiliate program or observations we may have missed? Don’t hesitate to speak up in the comments below.
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