Love it or hate it Amazon is out there.
To be honest I use Amazon but I try not to as I think it has killed too many outlets and is like Facebook and Google in acquiring everything about you to make more money. The other reason is that it is not often the cheapest place to buy things. I have found that it is great for finding items and suppliers but often going direct to the supplier's website can be cheaper. Amazon is great for efficient delivery and returns. So, if you only care about sending something back and want it tomorrow then stick to Amazon.
Amazon is also popular with websites, bloggers, vloggers and self-promoting influencers because it MAKES THEM MONEY!
Amazon runs a service called Associates (or Affiliates) which is designed to make you money by promoting Amazon and its services. If you sign up then every time somebody buys on Amazon via your website/channel then you get either a fee or percentage. This fee can be £1-£15 depending upon the service and the percentage can be between 1 and 10% of the spend.
The spend is not just the item you clicked on via the website. When you click on the link on someone's site you get linked to their affiliates code via cookies and your sign-in to Amazon. This link is valid for 24 hours so, everything you buy in the next 24 hours will give some income to the site owner that you casually clicked on. The fee is valid for items you put in your basket for the next 90 days. You click on a £1 widget on a site that takes you to Amazon and you think nothing of it. You then go back to Amazon 12 hours later (the next day) and buy a camera for £1000. The owner of the widget site get a percentage of that £1000 just for sending you to Amazon 12 hours before. It is easy to see how popular site can make a good income form this. But it is all about volume of visits to your site.
This is the reason you find so many review sites that don't really review the item but just give a brief description and then a link to buying it on Amazon. These are automated site just set-up to make money.
Sites also make money out of click throughs to Amazon. So even if you don't buy anything the traffic a site passes to Amazon can also generate an income as Amazon is playing the long game and hoping you will eventually buy something if you keep visiting.
I have no issue with this but just be aware that this is what happens.
There are many reasons why a company is cheaper on its own site rather than Amazon. Amazon is flooded with fake products and fake reviews. This makes it very difficult to wade through the lists of products to find a quality product at good price. Companies must make money and Amazon leads to the price being the only differentiator and its quickly goes to the bottom. So, companies keep the price high and if one drops it by £10, within seconds so do the others. No gain but loss in profit. On their own website they can put whatever price they are happy with.
