Quick answer: Associates Central has two numbers that matter most. Ordered items update hourly and show activity, while the Earnings Report shows shipped items and the commission you actually earned, current through the previous day. Use separate tracking IDs for each site or channel, check your Onsite Store ID if you are an Amazon Influencer, and review the numbers on a fixed monthly schedule instead of refreshing all day.
Amazon gives creators a lot of data, and most of it is free and already in your account. The challenge is knowing which number answers which question. Ordered items, shipped items, clicks, conversion, bounties, onsite earnings and tracking IDs all measure something different.
This guide explains the main reports in Associates Central, what each figure means and how to turn them into decisions. Amazon Influencers use the same reporting tools as Associates, since the Influencer Program is built on top of Associates. If you are still deciding whether the program fits you, our Amazon Influencer guide for creators covers eligibility, storefronts and how commissions work before you worry about reports.
Where the Reports Live
All reporting sits in Associates Central, the dashboard at the Amazon Associates site. After signing in, the Reports area shows a summary of earnings by program, commission income, bounties, a daily earnings graph and key indicators such as clicks, ordered items, shipped items and conversion rate.
Amazon’s help pages describe several report views:
- A summary with key performance indicators and a daily earnings graph
- Today’s Orders, for near real-time order data
- The Orders Report, which combines clicks and orders by item
- The Earnings Report, which shows shipped items and commission income
- Tracking ID Summary, Link Type Performance and Daily Trends, found under the Commissions tab
- Bounty reporting, for programs that pay a flat amount per action
Every view can be filtered to a single tracking ID or show all of them together. Reports can also be downloaded for a deeper look in a spreadsheet, and Amazon lets you set a custom date range of up to 90 days on the page itself.
Ordered Items Versus Earnings
This is the distinction that confuses most new creators. Amazon’s help page on reports spells out the timing.
Ordered items
Reports for ordered items and bounties are updated hourly, and Amazon says most orders are reported within three hours of being placed. Ordered items show that someone bought something after using your link or content. They are an early signal, useful for seeing whether a new video or post is working.
Ordered does not mean earned. An order can still be cancelled, go unshipped or be returned.
Shipped items and earnings
The Earnings Report shows items that have shipped and the commission tied to them. Amazon says this report is current as of the previous day, so on a Tuesday you see earnings through Monday. Commissions are based on qualifying purchases, and Amazon’s Associates terms do not pay on items that are cancelled or returned.
Because of the gap between ordering and shipping, ordered items will often run ahead of shipped items. Big shopping events make the gap larger, as orders pile up faster than they ship.
What to use each for
Use ordered items for quick feedback on a new piece of content. Use the Earnings Report for anything involving money: monthly totals, comparing months, budgeting and tax records.
Tracking IDs: Your Most Useful Tool
A tracking ID is a tag added to your Amazon links, such as yourname-20. Associates Central lets you create extra tracking IDs, so traffic from different places can be measured separately.
Common ways to split them:
- One tracking ID per website
- Separate IDs for YouTube, Pinterest, email and social posts
- A dedicated ID for a single campaign or seasonal guide
Once the IDs are in place, the Tracking ID Summary shows clicks, items and earnings for each one. That turns a single blurry total into a clear picture of which channel pulls its weight.
A few habits keep tracking IDs useful:
- Name each ID so you can tell what it is at a glance
- Keep a simple list of which ID belongs to which site or channel
- Use the right ID every time a link is created, which SiteStripe and the link builder make easy
- Audit your sites from time to time for links that carry the wrong tag
That last point matters. Links copied from old drafts, templates or other people’s content can carry someone else’s tag, which sends the commission to the wrong account. A periodic check that every Amazon link on a site carries your own tag is cheap insurance.
The Onsite Store ID for Amazon Influencers
Amazon Influencers have an extra ID to watch. According to Amazon’s help page on earning onsite commissions, content you upload to your storefront, such as Idea Lists, photos, videos and livestreams, may be selected to appear to shoppers as they search and browse Amazon. When shoppers click that content and make a qualifying purchase, you earn at an onsite rate.
Amazon tracks those earnings under a separate Onsite Store ID that it creates for you, which may begin with onamz. The same help page explains a few key points:
- The Onsite Store ID is for tracking and reporting only; keep using your regular Store ID for links you create
- To view onsite earnings, use the drop-down next to your store name at the top right of Associates Central and select the Onsite Store ID
- You need to add payment and tax information to the Onsite Store ID to be paid, since that information does not carry over from your main Store ID
- Onsite Store IDs are created per country, in the same locale as your storefront
- Onsite rates are listed in Associates Central
For many creators who post shoppable videos to product pages, a large share of activity can appear under the onsite ID, so checking only the main Store ID gives an incomplete picture. Our guide to setting up an Amazon storefront explains the content types that feed into onsite earnings.
Clicks, Conversion and Link Types
Clicks show how many times people followed your links to Amazon. Conversion rate compares ordered items with clicks. Both live in the summary and the Orders Report.
The Orders Report combines click and order data. Its top section lists each item ordered and how many direct-link clicks it received. A second section lists items that were viewed through a direct link but not ordered. Amazon also reports Other Clicks, which come from links to the home page, search results and category pages.
The Link Type Performance report breaks results down by the kind of link used, such as text links, image links or links to search results. That helps answer practical questions, like whether a product image in a post earns more than a text link in the same spot.
Read conversion carefully. Shoppers often buy something other than the product they clicked, and Amazon’s Associates terms can credit other qualifying purchases a shopper makes after following your link, within the time windows the agreement sets. A low conversion rate on one item can hide strong earnings from related items, so look at earnings as well as conversion.
Creator Connections and Bounties
Brand campaigns and bounties show up in their own places.
Creator Connections campaigns add commission on top of standard rates for products in a campaign. Campaign earnings can be tracked alongside your regular commissions, and our explainer on how Creator Connections campaigns work covers how campaigns are set up and paid.
Bounties are flat payments for actions such as sign-ups or free trials for certain Amazon programs. Amazon’s help pages say bounty reports update hourly, like ordered items. Bounties are listed separately from product commissions in the summary.
A Monthly Review Routine
Checking reports every hour feels productive but rarely changes decisions. A fixed monthly routine works better for most creators.
- Wait a few days into the new month, so the previous month’s shipped items have caught up.
- Download the Earnings Report for the full previous month.
- Record total earnings, shipped items and returns in a running spreadsheet, one row per month.
- Open the Tracking ID Summary and note earnings by channel.
- Switch to the Onsite Store ID, if you have one, and record onsite earnings separately.
- Note any Creator Connections campaign earnings and which products drove them.
- Compare with the same month last year, if you have the data, since retail is seasonal.
- Write down two or three decisions, such as filming more in a category that grew or dropping a channel that never converts.
Keep the spreadsheet simple. A handful of columns updated monthly beats an elaborate dashboard that nobody maintains.
Reading Reports Around Big Sales Events
Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the weeks before the winter holidays change how the numbers behave. Orders arrive in bursts, shipping takes longer, and returns tend to rise in the weeks after gift-giving.
During those stretches, expect ordered items to run well ahead of shipped items for a while. Resist the urge to judge a sales event by its first few days of shipped earnings. A fairer check is to compare the full month, or the event week plus the two weeks after it, against the same period in an earlier year.
Seasonal content also deserves its own tracking ID. A holiday gift guide with a dedicated tag makes it easy to see whether the guide was worth the effort, separate from the rest of a site’s traffic. The same trick works for back-to-school, spring cleaning and outdoor-season content.
Write down what you filmed or published before each event. When the results arrive weeks later, those notes make it much easier to connect a change in earnings to a specific decision.
Payments and Records
Amazon pays commissions on a delay. Associates are generally paid about 60 days after the end of the month in which the commission was earned, once a minimum balance is reached. Check the payment section of Associates Central for your exact schedule, method and thresholds.
For tax purposes, keep the downloaded Earnings Reports and payment records together. In the United States, the IRS treats affiliate commissions as income whether or not you receive a tax form, and self-employment tax generally applies once net earnings from self-employment reach $400 in a year. A tax professional can help with how to report the income.
Common Mistakes When Reading the Numbers
A few errors show up again and again:
- Treating ordered items as money in the bank, when cancellations and returns can still reduce them
- Ignoring the Onsite Store ID and undercounting Influencer earnings
- Using one tracking ID everywhere, which makes it impossible to tell what works
- Comparing a holiday month with a quiet month and drawing the wrong lesson
- Forgetting to add tax and payment details to a new Store ID
- Reacting to a single day’s numbers instead of monthly trends
For a side-by-side view of how earnings differ between programs, see our comparison of Amazon Influencer and Amazon Associates.
Frequently Asked Questions
?? Why are my ordered items higher than my shipped items?
Ordered items update hourly, while shipped items appear in the Earnings Report once products ship. Orders can also be cancelled or returned. The gap is normal and usually narrows over the following days.
?? How often does Amazon update Associates reports?
According to Amazon’s help pages, ordered items and bounties update hourly, with most orders reported within three hours. The Earnings Report is current as of the previous day.
?? What is the onamz Store ID in my account?
Amazon Influencers are automatically assigned an Onsite Store ID, which may begin with onamz. It tracks earnings from storefront content that Amazon shows to shoppers on its own site. Keep using your regular Store ID for links you create.
?? Do I need separate tax information for my Onsite Store ID?
Yes. Amazon says payment and tax information is not transferred between Store IDs, so each one needs its own details before earnings can be paid.
?? How many tracking IDs should I create?
Enough to separate the channels you want to compare, such as one per website and one per major social platform. Too many makes the reports hard to read.
?? Can I see which products people clicked but did not buy?
Yes. The Orders Report has a section for items viewed through a direct link but not ordered, which helps spot products that draw interest but do not convert.
Sources: Amazon Associates Central help pages (How to use reports; Earning Onsite Commissions), Amazon Associates Program Operating Agreement, Amazon Creator Connections program pages, IRS guidance on self-employment tax. Program details change, so check Associates Central for the current version.