Amazon Affiliate for International Visitors: Which Stores Pay and How to Set Up Each One

A guide that ranks in the US ranks in Canada, the UK and Australia too, because English is English. If your links go to Amazon.com with a -20 tag, a shopper in London lands on a store that won't ship to them, bounces, and buys the same product on Amazon.co.uk without you. That's lost commission on traffic you've already earned.

This post covers which Amazon stores have an affiliate program, which share your existing account, how the tag suffixes identify each store, when OneLink does the job on its own, and when a separate account for a store is worth the application.

The short answer

Nineteen Amazon stores run an Associates program. Six of them (Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain) can be enabled from an Amazon.com account; the rest need their own application.

Once a store is enabled, OneLink routes visitors to it with the right tag. For most English-language sites, enabling Canada and the UK on the global account, then turning on OneLink, captures most of what's being lost.

Why a -20 link earns nothing from a UK visitor

Each Amazon store is a separate business with its own affiliate program, its own IDs and its own payouts. A link to Amazon.com carrying a -20 tag tells Amazon.com who to pay. If the shopper is redirected to Amazon.co.uk, or goes there themselves, the UK store has never heard of your -20 tag and pays nobody.

To earn from UK buyers, you need a UK Associates ID (ending -21) and a link that points at Amazon.co.uk with that ID in it. The same holds for every other store. The Associates ID post covers how the IDs are built.

Every store with an Associates program

Amazon adds and changes stores, and OneLink's list moves with them, so treat this table as the starting point and the Associates Central of each store as the final word.

The global account: six stores for one application

The biggest shortcut is the one most new affiliates miss. An approved Amazon.com account can be extended to Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain without a fresh application. In Associates Central, the account settings have a section for adding stores; each one you enable gets its own ID under your existing account, with the suffix that store uses.

Earnings from each store are tracked and paid separately, in that store's currency, but you manage them from one login. For an English-language site, enabling Canada and the UK takes a few minutes and covers the two largest sources of non-US buyers.

Separate accounts: when they're worth it

Japan, Australia, India and the rest each need their own application, their own approval, and their own three sales in 180 days to stay open. That's real work, so the question is whether the traffic justifies it.

Look at the country report in Search Console or your analytics. A store is worth setting up when its country sends a meaningful share of clicks to product links, say 5 percent or more. Australia is the common case for English-language sites.

Below that, the account will struggle to hit three sales in its first 180 days and may be closed for inactivity, which is worse than never opening it.

Before applying, check how that store pays. Some pay non-residents only by gift card for that store, which has no value unless you shop there. A store that can't pay you to a bank you use isn't worth opening.

OneLink: the routing layer

With stores enabled, you still need the visitor to land on the right one. That's what OneLink does: a script on your site reads the visitor's location, and for countries with a supported store, rewrites your Amazon.com links to point at the local store with the local tag. A reader in Manchester clicks a -20 link and arrives at Amazon.co.uk with your -21 tag.

OneLink only works for stores you've enabled, and it only covers the stores in its list. Setup and the exact-match versus close-match choice are in the OneLink post. The short version: enable the stores first, then turn OneLink on, and it does the rest.

A setup that fits most sites

1. Enable Canada and the UK on your Amazon.com account. Ten minutes, covers the most common non-US buyers.
2. Add Germany, France, Italy and Spain if the site is in those languages or sends traffic there. Same account, same ten minutes.
3. Turn on OneLink. Links keep pointing at Amazon.com in your content; the routing happens at click time.
4. Watch the country report for six months. If Australia or Japan shows real volume, apply for that store separately.
5. Keep writing links with your .com tag. One tag in the content, OneLink handles the swap. Don't hand-write per-store links unless a page is specifically for one market.

Doing it with AffSERP

AffSERP's product tools pull products from the store you choose per site, with that store's tag on every link. A site aimed at UK readers can be set to Amazon.co.uk with a -21 ID, and the X Best Review tool builds the guide from UK listings with UK availability, which is what a UK-only site should do rather than routing through OneLink.

For a site with mixed traffic, keep it on Amazon.com, publish with your -20 ID, and let OneLink route the international clicks. Either way the tag comes from the site settings, so a store change never means editing links by hand.

FAQ

Do I need a separate Amazon Associates account for each country?

For most stores, yes. The exception is the global account: once you're approved on Amazon.com you can enable Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain from the same account. Japan, Australia, India, the Netherlands and the rest each need their own application.

Why does my UK link end in -21 instead of -20?

The suffix identifies the store. Amazon.com Associates IDs end in -20; Amazon.co.uk, .de, .fr, .it and .es IDs end in -21. Each store issues its own ID, and a link only earns when the ID matches the store it points at.

Is OneLink enough, or do I need to set up each store myself?

OneLink is enough for the stores it covers, which are the ones most sites care about. It redirects visitors from a supported country to their local store and swaps in that store's tag, but only for stores you've enabled. Enabling them is the setup; OneLink is the routing.

How do I get paid from a store in another country?

Each store pays in its own currency, and whether it can pay to a foreign bank account varies by store. Some pay non-residents by gift card only, which is only useful if you shop there. Check the payment options on that store's Associates Central before you apply; a store that can't pay you is a store not worth setting up.

Keep reading

Amazon Affiliate Amazon OneLink Explained: Earn From International Visitors How OneLink routes visitors to their local store, which stores it covers, setup and caveats.

Amazon Affiliate What is an Amazon Associates ID? Store ID vs Tracking ID, explained What the ID looks like, where to find it, and how Store IDs and Tracking IDs differ.