The Amazon Influencer Program has a second gate most applicants miss: after initial approval, creators must upload three or more qualifying product review videos to unlock full onsite commission access — the program’s highest-value earning mechanism, according to guides from AdBadger and Project Casting.

Initial approval gets you a storefront (amazon.com/shop/yourname), curated collections and offsite affiliate commissions. But the onsite tier — where your videos earn commissions directly on Amazon’s product pages, in front of shoppers with maximum purchase intent — requires those three review videos. Without this step, you have a storefront but not the program’s best commissions.

Amazon evaluates the initial application on engagement quality rather than follower count: no published minimum, with practical benchmarks around 1,000+ engaged followers. Instagram and YouTube applicants are favored in 2026, and product-adjacent niches (beauty, home, tech, fitness, baby, pets) perform best. Applications are reviewed in days, not weeks, and rejections usually come down to thin followings, unsupported countries or content that doesn’t demonstrate real influence.

The review videos themselves should be shoppable product reviews — the format Amazon’s onsite algorithm rewards. Creators can run both sides simultaneously: affiliate links off-platform plus videos earning onsite commissions at the same time.

For creators, the two-gate structure explains why some approved influencers earn almost nothing: they stopped at the storefront and never unlocked onsite placement.

The takeaway for creators: film your three review videos the week you get approved. Pick products you genuinely use, optimize titles for Amazon search terms, and treat onsite video as a separate content format — it is the difference between a vanity storefront and a revenue stream.