Amazon Global Earning: International Redirects Are Now Enabled by Default

Amazon has rolled out a new feature called Global Earning for U.S. creators.

The important part is not only that U.S. affiliate links can now earn commissions internationally.

The bigger change is that all U.S. creators are automatically opted in.

No setup is required. Existing Amazon.com affiliate links now redirect international shoppers to their local Amazon store in nine additional countries:

• Canada
• United Kingdom
• Germany
• Italy
• Spain
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Sweden
• France

Amazon says creators can earn from a single U.S. account, without creating separate accounts or replacing existing links.

But there is one important detail that may surprise some affiliates:

What is Amazon Global Earning?

Global Earning automatically localizes U.S. Amazon affiliate links.

When an international shopper clicks an Amazon.com affiliate link, Amazon sends them to the corresponding local Amazon store.

For example, a visitor from Germany may be redirected from Amazon.com to Amazon.de.

Amazon then tries to find:

1. The exact same product.
2. A similar product if the exact one is unavailable.
3. Local search results if no suitable product match is found.

If the shopper completes an eligible purchase, the affiliate earns the commission rate defined by that local Amazon Associates program.

Amazon describes the feature like this:

Your existing links will begin working internationally immediately — no setup, no new links, and no changes to your workflow required.

This is available automatically to all U.S. creators.

Do you need to enable it?

No.

According to Amazon’s FAQ:

All US creators are automatically opted in.

This means Global Earning can affect existing links even if the affiliate never enabled OneLink or configured any international Amazon accounts.

Amazon also says that creators do not need a separate account for every country.

International earnings appear in the existing dashboard, with a country selector for viewing performance.

Payments are still handled separately by each Amazon entity, and creators may need to add payment preferences for each country.

Canada also requires additional tax information before Amazon can issue payments there.

Can international redirects be disabled?

Amazon’s FAQ does not document any account-level or per-link option to disable the international redirect entirely.

International shoppers are redirected to their local Amazon store automatically.

The only available control is what Amazon should do when the exact product is not available in the shopper’s country.

Amazon exposes this as a “Show local matches” toggle in:

• SiteStripe on desktop
• Mobile GetLink

This is a per-link setting.

It does not disable Global Earning or keep the shopper on Amazon.com.

It only changes the fallback behavior.

What does “Show local matches” control?

When the setting is enabled, Amazon may redirect the shopper to a similar product.

That similar product may not be identical to the original product and may even come from a different brand.

When the setting is disabled, Amazon only redirects to an exact local product match.

If no exact match exists, the shopper is sent to local Amazon search results instead of a similar product page.

So the behavior is:

Show local matches enabled

• Exact product if available
• Similar product if no exact match exists
• Search results if Amazon cannot find a suitable match

Show local matches disabled

• Exact product if available
• Search results if no exact match exists

The international redirect still happens in both cases.

SiteStripe link parameters

I generated two SiteStripe links for the same product to compare the URLs.

With Show local matches enabled, Amazon added:

gaOptInStatus=true

With Show local matches disabled, Amazon added:

gaOptInStatus=false
optOutTS=1785872629309

The optOutTS value appears to be a timestamp generated when the link is created.

The linkId also changes between links, but SiteStripe normally creates a new linkId each time a link is generated, so it is probably not the actual fallback setting.

The relevant parameters appear to be:

gaOptInStatus=false
optOutTS=<timestamp>

However, Amazon does not currently document these parameters publicly.

Content Egg 21.2.0 support

Content Egg Pro 21.2.0 adds support for choosing the Global Earning fallback behavior.

A new setting is available in both:

• Amazon API module
• Amazon NoAPI module

The option is called:

Global Earning fallback

Available values:

• Similar product
• Search results

The setting includes the following explanation:

International shoppers are always redirected to their local Amazon store; this cannot be disabled. This setting controls only what happens when the exact product is not available there: Amazon can send the shopper to a similar product, which may be from a different brand, or to local search results.

Selecting Similar product keeps Amazon’s default behavior.

Selecting Search results tells Amazon not to redirect shoppers to a merely similar product when the exact product is unavailable.

Instead, the shopper should land on local Amazon search results.

This may be useful for affiliates who do not want Amazon replacing the promoted product with a different model or brand.

What this means for affiliates

The main benefit is obvious.

U.S. creators can now monetize international traffic without generating separate affiliate links for every supported Amazon store.

But there is also a tradeoff.

An affiliate may link to one product, while an international visitor is redirected to a different product Amazon considers similar.

That product may have:

• Different specifications
• Different pricing
• Different reviews
• A different seller
• A different brand

This is especially important for detailed product reviews and comparisons where the exact product matters.

For these articles, sending the shopper to search results may be safer than automatically replacing the original product with a different one.

For broader roundup articles, gift guides, or generic product recommendations, similar matching may be acceptable and may produce better conversion rates.

What we know so far

Amazon Global Earning is now automatically enabled for all U.S. creators.

Existing U.S. affiliate links can earn commissions in nine additional countries without additional setup.

International visitors are automatically redirected to their local Amazon store.

Amazon does not currently document a way to disable this international redirect entirely.

Creators can only control the fallback behavior when the exact product is unavailable:

• Redirect to a similar product
• Redirect to local search results

Content Egg Pro 21.2.0 adds an experimental setting for this choice in the Amazon API and Amazon NoAPI modules.

The implementation is based on parameters found in Amazon-generated SiteStripe links, but it still requires more testing.

I will update this post when Amazon publishes more technical details or when enough real-world feedback is available.