2020 Update
It’s been over a year since Amazon axed the Amazon Giveaways program. If you’re looking for other cost-effective marketing services for Amazon, check out our blog post, Marketing Alternatives to Amazon Giveaways.
What Happened to Amazon Giveaways?
In the latest change in Amazon services, Amazon announced that it is retiring the Amazon Giveaways program. According to an Amazon email announcing the change, brands will be able to create new Giveaways through October 10th, 2019. Shoppers will be able to enter giveaways until October 17th, 2019.
Seller Central displayed the following message when brands create a new giveaway.
Amazon sent the following email on September 27th, 2019 to authors who have run giveaways:
“Hello,
After careful consideration, Amazon Giveaway is retiring. Thank you for participating in the program. Our records show that you have credits from previous eBook giveaways. These credits can be used to create new giveaways until October 10, 2019 and customers can enter giveaways until October 17, 2019. You can also download any remaining eBook credits as Kindle claim codes from the Amazon Giveaway dashboard. Claim codes do not expire, and can be gifted through social media channels, or directly to fans, followers, friends, or family members.
Any unused credits that are not downloaded as claim codes will be refunded by November 30, 2019.”
The exact reasons behind the decision to retire Amazon Giveaways is unclear at this time. Giveaways had served as an excellent means to amplify visibility, pairing well with off-Amazon promotions.
If you have questions about how the end of this program will affect your brand, reach out to Kaspien here or contact your Kaspien account manager directly.
What to Use Instead of Amazon Giveaways
Learn about other marketing options now that Giveaways are gone.
Other Retired and Revised Amazon Services
Amazon Giveaways is far from the only Amazon service to be “retired.” Below are just a few of the Amazon services discontinued in recent years.
Amazon Early Reviewer Program
Amazon retired the Early Reviewer Program on April 25, 2021. The program allowed brands to generate up to 5 new reviews for products with less than 5 reviews by offering a small Amazon credit provided by Amazon.
Amazon Free Samples
In November 2019, Amazon announced it would be shutting down its free sample program in 2020. The program allowed brands to identify target audiences and send shoppers free samples in the hopes of converting them into a repeat customer and/or generate word-of-mouth marketing. The program ends amid concerns over data mining and privacy.
Amazon Live
October comes with two big changes: Giveaways and Amazon Live. Amazon recently announced that, as of October 14th, pre-recorded videos that are longer than 5 minutes and/or looped will be prohibited on Amazon Live.
This policy update is the result of advertisers running pre-recorded videos on repeat for 24+ hours without monitoring chat, creating a poor customer experience.
Moving forward, any pre-recorded videos broadcasted on Amazon Live cannot be looped, must be under 5 minutes, and must not appear to be pre-recorded.
Amazon Spark
In mid-2019, Amazon deactivated Amazon Spark, which allowed shoppers to browse through a photo-heavy feed similar to Instagram. While the spark has gone out of this Amazon service, mobile shopping continues to grow, with roughly half of US shoppers browsing on mobile.
Amazon Restaurants
Amazon’s ambition has taken it to great places, but in this case, it led to a dead end. With established companies like Uber and Grubhub dominating the delivery market, Amazon discontinued Amazon Restaurants in 2019.
Amazon Storywriter
On June 30, Amazon shut down Amazon Storywriter, which allowed film writers to create scripts and submit them directly to Amazon studios. The service had been shut down previously in 2018.
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