What: Influencers are unhappy with Nordstrom’s updated affiliate commission policy as the latest Anniversary Sale sees less influencer hype.

Why it is important: The benefits of Nordstrom’s influencer marketing adoption in the 2010s brought the Anniversary Sale to fame, yet now the influencers who once looked to the sale as their top money maker are downplaying the event.

Partly this is due to Nordstrom’s adjusted strategy to lean away from influencer marketing. This year they slashed the cut influencers get when followers make a purchase off their recommendation, dropping down 7%- 20% from last year. The department store narrowed the window where a link generates a commission to seven days. Influencers also won’t get paid until 270 days after a successful transaction.

Some influencers felt a sense of ownership over the event, believing their collective annual flood of posts helped turn Nordstrom’s online sale into a phenomenon. But Nordstrom’s pullback from influencer marketing was years in the making. The Anniversary Sale is still important to Nordstrom’s top and bottom line but it has suffered from overexposure in recent years with social media feeds flooded with creators discussing discounts or sharing products and hauls. Some found the assortment repetitive from year to year, adding to the fatigue. And other retailers followed Nordstrom’s lead creating their own grand holiday sales.

The overall timing of Nordstrom’s pullback can also be seen in the shifting timeline of the sale. In 2020, the sale was pushed back a few months due to the pandemic; when it eventually went live, it was on a smaller scale. Now being sold in early July, the adjusted timing has made it more difficult to sell the predominantly fall and winter merchandise that makes up the sale.

Influencers say the assortment includes more of Nordstrom’s own private labels and fewer items from brands their followers are interested in. Additional criticism centres around the same items being marked down every year.

Now that the sale is well known to customers, eliminating influencer marketing and cutting back on affiliate commissions will also help shore up margins as other costs rise. However, it should be noted that influencers are sharing less about Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale but have invested more time in posting about Amazon’s Prime Day.

Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale drops influencer marketing