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Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

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Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#41

Post by abirch »

iambateman wrote: post #14

The fun part of Amazon Smile was that it let customers decide how they wanted to change the world…but now they’ve decided they - Amazon - know better, thank you very much. This is surprisingly honest for corporatespeak and I think reflects the god-complex which tends to follow people who spend a lot of time taking in billions of dollars. The reality is there were a lot of charities - maybe even most of them - who wer…

It makes it easier to say goodbye. I wish Shopify or Google had an easier way to buy anything their. I'm downloading my pictures and cancelling prime.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#42

Post by neodymiumphish »

gnicholas wrote: post #5
nicklevin wrote: post #2

There were seemingly odd hoops for customers to jump through to have their purchases qualify for Smile. Didn't type in the 'smile' URL? Too bad, no donation for you. One of the oddest was requiring push notifications in order for mobile purchases to count ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21233815 ).

I would often forget to type "smile" when searching for stuff, but then I'd just add to cart, close the window, and go to my cart via smile. That seemed to work. But I think we can all see this for what it is — belt tightening. Will they increase other philanthropic activities to the tune of what they were previously giving away via Smile? I would be very, very surprised if so.

They actually might. Whatever the overhead was in managing and tracking payments to that many charities based on payments from that many customers had to be significant. Instead, they could just throw 50 mil across the top 10 each year and not have to deal with managing the smile program anymore.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#44

Post by andrewmutz »

shusaku wrote: post #28
TMWNN wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One million eligible recipients around the world, according to Amazon, so $400 per recipient over the decade the program has existed.

Checking my account right now: I generated $2.86, and my charity received $399.79. Yay for being average I guess! I’m surprised they couldn’t squeeze more out of this program though. With credit cards, I think the points system definitely works to make you feel better about your purchase.

Points go towards charity?

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#45

Post by hobbitstan »

So it looks like animal charities are out then. A local shelter was my chosen charity. Saying that, I only generated $70 of donations with 300 orders so it wasn't much, but every little helps.

The fact that they're axing this at a time of mass layoffs makes me think they're not telling the truth.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#47

Post by eclipticplane »

DavidPeiffer wrote: post #33
quanticle wrote: post #15

I'm sad, but unsurprised to see Amazon Smile go. Retail isn't exactly high margin to begin with, and Amazon has made a specialty of squeezing what margin remained. As Jeff Bezos said, "Your margin is my opportunity." So, when Amazon announced Smile, I was very surprised that they weren't adding a surcharge for the donation, but rather where making the donation out of whatever margin they earned on the product. I gues…

From what I've read, an Amazon smile link will superceded any affiliate link you clicked on. That means Amazon goes from paying out multiple percent to 0.5%. I'm guessing the administrative burden of so many organizations is a big driver behind the shutdown.

Oof, really? Then I actually feel bad that some of the smaller blogs I follow that published legit reviews didn't get credit for my sales. (I use the Always Smile browser extension.)

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#48

Post by dealforager »

DavidPeiffer wrote: post #33
quanticle wrote: post #15

I'm sad, but unsurprised to see Amazon Smile go. Retail isn't exactly high margin to begin with, and Amazon has made a specialty of squeezing what margin remained. As Jeff Bezos said, "Your margin is my opportunity." So, when Amazon announced Smile, I was very surprised that they weren't adding a surcharge for the donation, but rather where making the donation out of whatever margin they earned on the product. I gues…

From what I've read, an Amazon smile link will superceded any affiliate link you clicked on. That means Amazon goes from paying out multiple percent to 0.5%. I'm guessing the administrative burden of so many organizations is a big driver behind the shutdown.

I don't think this is true, I run an affiliate site that directs people to Smile, and my commissions have been the same whether I direct to Smile or not. I have heard that your conversions typically go down when you use Smile. However I think that might be because many customers have never signed up for Smile and are scared away. I decided to stick with Smile links because I thought that in the long term it would motivate people to continue using my site and I figured at worst I'd help charities a lot more than the income I'd lose so I'm a bit sad to learn about this.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#49

Post by tompt »

nicklevin wrote: post #2

There were seemingly odd hoops for customers to jump through to have their purchases qualify for Smile. Didn't type in the 'smile' URL? Too bad, no donation for you. One of the oddest was requiring push notifications in order for mobile purchases to count ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21233815 ).

I always assumed having to type the smile domain was more about making sure they didn't have to make both an affiliate payment and a smile payment on the same order.

Seemed like an easy way to cut off affiliates while appearing to be generous. Maybe I'm just too cynical.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#50

Post by woodruffw »

I've managed to successfully boycott Amazon for about 3 years at this point, with very sparing business expenses that I'd do through AmazonSmile to "offset" my use of Amazon. It's good to know that that option will no longer be available to me, meaning that I will no longer have any excuse to do business with Amazon!
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