Amazon Global Earning Explained: Earn From Viewers in Other Countries

YouTube shows your videos all over the world, but unless you set up Amazon’s older OneLink tool, a normal Amazon link only went to one store. A viewer in the UK who clicked your Amazon.com link landed on the US store, where they often could not or would not buy.

Amazon now has a program called Global Earning. It sends international viewers who click your US links to their own Amazon store, and you earn from what they buy there. Amazon says US creators are enrolled automatically, with no setup and no new links.

It covers 9 countries besides the US. For other countries you may still need OneLink or a separate Associates program. This article explains how Global Earning works, what the new Show local matches option in SiteStripe does, how you get paid, and what to do for the countries it does not cover.

Imagine a viewer in London watches your review and clicks your link. Without any redirect, they arrive on Amazon.com. The prices are in US dollars, delivery may be slow or expensive, and many products do not ship to the UK at all. Many people close the page and look for the product on Amazon.co.uk instead.

When they buy it on Amazon.co.uk that way, they are no longer using your link, so the purchase is not tracked as yours. Only purchases through a link that carries your tracking tag count, which our guide on how to tell if a link is an Amazon affiliate link explains.

To see whether this matters for your channel, open YouTube Studio, go to Analytics, then Audience, and look at the Top geographies card. It shows where your viewers watch from, not who clicks your links, but a large share outside the US is a good sign that international links are worth your attention.

According to Amazon’s Global Earning page, when an international shopper clicks your link, they are sent to the same product on their local Amazon store, in their own currency and language, with local shipping. Amazon’s example is a book link that sends a shopper in Spain to Amazon.es.

Amazon says you do not need to do anything to start. In its words, your existing links and Storefront start working internationally right away, with no setup, no new links and no changes to your workflow. It also says your US earnings are unchanged, and Global Earning only adds earnings from international shoppers.

Amazon’s page talks about creators, links and Storefronts, so if you only have a regular Associates account, check that it applies to you. Sign in to Associates Central and open Account Settings. If you see Global Earning Preferences there, that is a good sign your account is part of it. You may also see a new Show local matches option when you make links with SiteStripe.

If the exact product is not sold in the shopper’s country, Amazon sends them to the best local alternative. If there is no match at all, they land on search results. The next section explains how to control that.

Amazon lists 9 countries in addition to the US:

• 01Canada
• 02United Kingdom
• 03Germany
• 04France
• 05Italy
• 06Spain
• 07Netherlands
• 08Poland
• 09Sweden

You can switch off any of these countries under Account Settings, in Global Earning Preferences, if you do not want to earn there. Countries outside this list, such as Japan, Australia, India, Brazil and Mexico, work differently, as explained further down.

When you make a link with SiteStripe, you may now see a check box called Show local matches. It decides what happens when the exact product you linked to is not sold in the viewer’s country.

• 01On. The viewer is sent to the best local alternative. Amazon’s example is a blender sold on Amazon.com but not on Amazon.de, where the viewer may be sent to a comparable blender from the same or another brand.
• 02Off. Amazon says shoppers get only exact matches, or search results if no exact match exists.

Neither choice is wrong. With it on, more viewers can buy something, so you have more chances to earn. With it off, viewers only see the product you actually recommended, which can matter for a review channel, because a similar product from another brand is not something you have tested.

Sales in another country are paid at that country’s standard rates, which differ by country and product category. Our guide on Amazon affiliate commission rates explains where to find the right table. Amazon’s page also links to a rate card where you can switch between countries.

• 01Each country pays you separately, once your earnings in that country reach its payment threshold.
• 02Your payment method must be able to receive payments from each country. Amazon says US bank accounts are accepted in all of them.
• 03You need your US tax information in place to earn. On top of that, Amazon says Canada is the only country that needs extra tax information before it pays you, because payments to people outside Canada may have Canadian tax withheld.
• 04Your earnings report has a country dropdown, so you can see each country on its own or a combined summary.

If you are a US taxpayer, Amazon says your international earnings are included on your 1099. Ask a tax advisor if you are unsure how this applies to you.

Before Global Earning, Amazon’s tool for this was OneLink, and it still matters for some countries. Amazon’s Global Earning page says your existing OneLink setup keeps working for countries outside the Global Earning list.

Amazon’s OneLink setup guide says that for countries such as Japan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Australia, you need an Associates account in each country you want to earn from. You sign up in each one, then link the accounts to your US account in Associates Central under Account Settings, then Link Store IDs. The guide lists the sign-up page for each country. Amazon’s older OneLink pages also list the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. Those three are now part of Global Earning, and Amazon says OneLink keeps working for the countries outside it. Before opening new accounts, check your Account Settings to see which countries you already earn from, so you do not set up something you already have.

One rule from the OneLink FAQ is worth knowing whichever program you use: Amazon says OneLink works with Amazon full links and Amazon short links, but links made by third-party link shorteners are not redirected. The Global Earning page does not mention shorteners, so the safest choice is Amazon’s own links. Our guide on short links vs full Amazon links explains the difference.

India, Brazil and Mexico are not on the Global Earning list, and they are not on Amazon’s OneLink lists either. Each of them runs its own Associates program on its own Amazon store.

If a big part of your audience is in one of these countries, the usual answer is to join that country’s program and add a second link for those viewers. Label each link clearly in your description, for example one line for US viewers and one line for viewers in India.

Each of these programs is separate, with its own rules, approval and payments, so read the rules for each one before you add its links.

Earning from more countries is good news, but a redirect only helps if the link it starts from still works. If your link loses your tracking tag, it stops earning for you in every country at once, because purchases are only credited through a tagged link. And if you add separate links for India or other countries, each of those can stop working on its own, for example when a product sells out in one country but not another.

Our guide on why an Amazon affiliate link stops working covers the common causes. You can check your links by hand by opening each video and clicking every link. If you would rather not, AffiliScan scans your YouTube videos for Amazon links that are broken or point to unavailable products, including links to Amazon stores outside the US.