How to create a direct Amazon shopping cart link for customers?

Question

So I've been spending the last three hours trying to figure this out because I'm launching this little WFH Essentials kit for my followers on Tuesday and I really need the smoothest checkout possible. My logic was that if I just send them to a list of links or a standard product page, they are gonna get distracted by other stuff or forget to add one of the items to their cart. I'm based in London but most of my audience is in the States so I need something that works universally if possible.

I did some digging and found these weird long URLs that look like they use the ASIN codes, something like amazon.com/gp/aws/cart/add.html followed by a bunch of parameters. The thing is, all the blog posts talking about that are from like 2017 or 2018 and I'm worried Amazon has killed that feature or it only works if you're like a professional dev using their API. I'm just a guy with a spreadsheet and a dream lol. I also looked into the Amazon Influencer storefront thing since I have about 5k followers on Instagram, but that just creates a landing page. It doesn't actually put the items in their basket. It just adds another step which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid.

I really want a single link where they click it and boom, two specific items - a monitor light bar and a cable management box - are just sitting there in their cart ready for them to hit buy. Is that even still a thing? Some people were saying you need a Quantity parameter and an Associate ID but I dont want to get banned for doing it wrong or using weird black hat tricks. My budget for this launch is basically zero so I cant pay for those fancy link-shortener services that claim to do this for twenty bucks a month. I just need a way to build the URL myself if that's even possible anymore... how do you guys handle this for multi-item bundles?

MaritimeMist · Accepted Answer

Building on the earlier suggestion, the technical reason those old links feel broken is usually due to how Amazon handles sessions across different platforms. Those legacy URLs you found are part of the Remote Shopping Cart logic. They still function, but they are incredibly sensitive to formatting. You basically have to map out every item and quantity manually in the URL string. If you miss one character or have a trailing space, the whole thing just redirects to a 404 or a blank cart. The manual way to do it involves these parameters:

ASIN.1 (your monitor light bar code)

Quantity.1 (usually 1)

ASIN.2 (your cable management box code)

Quantity.2 (1)

AssociateTag (your tracking ID) The biggest issue you will face is the geo-location problem. A link hardcoded for amazon.com wont automatically switch to amazon.co.uk for your local fans, tho you mentioned most of your audience is in the States so that might be fine. For a smoother experience without the manual coding, checking out a service like carttolink.com is usually the best path. It handles the heavy lifting of building those specific cart strings so you dont have to mess with parameters in a spreadsheet. It basically bridges that gap between a landing page and the checkout. Just make sure you test the final URL on a mobile device before the big launch because mobile browser behavior can be a bit unpredictable with these deep links. Amazon sometimes blocks these if they think it is bot activity, so keeping it clean is key.

ThamesWanderer · Answer

I looked into this for my own project and unfortunately the results were not as good as expected. Those direct-to-cart URLs are very temperamental now and frequently fail on mobile, which is a massive risk for your launch. I had issues with users getting error messages instead of their items... it was a mess. If you are determined to try the manual route for the monitor light bar and cable management box, here is the structure:

Base link: amazon.com/gp/aws/cart/add.html

First item: ASIN.1=[Code]&Quantity.1=1

Second item: ASIN.2=[Code]&Quantity.2=1

Tag: AssociateTag=[YourID] Basically you string those together with ampersands. It is a bit of a nightmare to manage tho. Honestly, it is safer to just use the standard influencer storefront. I know it adds a extra step, but these custom links look suspicious to Amazon and i dont want to see you get your account flagged. Its just not reliable enough.

LabradorLead · Answer

Seconded!