This is an uncomfortable follow-up to the big Global Storefront video I put out yesterday, but I’d rather get it in front of you now than wait until it’s cleaner. A long-time influencer I trust answered “no” to the new home-country prompt on his US storefront, and the next morning his US earnings went to zero. One person, one day, small sample size. But it lines up with a couple of other things I’ve heard in the last 24 hours, and if you’re a non-US creator who’s about to see that same prompt, you need to know what might be on the other side of it.

In This Article

What Happened to Carl

My buddy Carl is in the UK and has been an Amazon influencer for five years. He reached out today with a report I want to pass along as precisely as I can. When he went into his US storefront, he got the new prompt asking, roughly, whether the US is his home base. He selected no. He wanted to be honest, and frankly none of us know what the ramifications are if you say yes when it isn’t true. The system didn’t ask a follow-up like “okay, then where?” It just ended there.

The next day, at the time he’d normally see his US earnings start coming through, he had nothing. He was normally doing about $50 a day from the US, and he was actually slightly negative. That sent him to check his placements on his top-earning products, and he’s not showing up anywhere on them.

Why I Take This Report Seriously

I want to emphasize the limits here. This is one person over a very short window. It does not mean this is how the program works for everyone, and it doesn’t mean it’s permanent. But Carl knows exactly what he’s looking at. He’s been checking placements and earnings every day for five years. When someone like that says he’s seeing something, he’s seeing something. What he’s seeing may not be the definitive truth about where the Global Storefront is going, but it’s worth a note, and it’s consistent with what a lot of you have been posting in the groups.

Only US Storefronts Are Getting the Home-Country Question

Here’s the detail that makes me think this is more than a glitch. As far as I can tell, nobody with a storefront in another country is being asked what their home country is. The only people seeing that prompt are people with US storefronts. If the Global Storefront were a symmetric system where every country feeds every other country, you’d expect everyone to get the same question. They aren’t.

That asymmetry suggests the US storefront is being treated as a source, and the other countries are being treated as destinations. Which brings me to the next piece.

What an Amazon Rep Reportedly Said About the Purpose

Some friends of mine were at the big YouTube event and were face-to-face with an Amazon rep who is very much in the know. I’m paraphrasing secondhand, so weigh it accordingly, but the way they described it was that the Global Storefront was designed to disseminate US-based videos out to the other countries as its primary purpose. The rep didn’t say other countries couldn’t opt in, and that part may simply not have come up. But the way I understood the conversation, part of the value Amazon sees here is getting US-based or English-speaking videos in front of international shoppers.

Put that next to the home-country prompt only appearing on US storefronts and it starts to form a picture.

What the Canadian Carousels Are Showing

One more observation from Carl. He checked his Canadian storefront, because it sounds like he’s getting cross-posted into Canada under the new system, and on the Canadian carousels he saw videos from other countries. Spain was one he specifically mentioned, plus a couple of others.

Meanwhile, I haven’t seen any evidence of foreign videos showing up on US carousels yet. So the sharing appears to be happening between the non-US countries, and from the US outward, but not into the US. That’s exactly what you’d expect if the goal is to export US content rather than import international content.

My Working Theory on How This Is Built

I’m reading between the lines here because you’re concerned and I’m trying to help based on what I’ve seen. My working theory: the Global Storefront is a US-centered system. US videos feed out to the other participating countries. The other countries may share among themselves. If Amazon believes US videos perform better, which would explain wanting to push them outward, then it follows they wouldn’t particularly want videos from other countries posted on the US side.

Under that theory, telling the system “the US is not my home base” might reclassify you from a US source creator into something else, and that something else may not keep your US placements. I’m not certain that’s what happened to Carl. I’m telling you it’s the explanation that fits every data point I currently have.

Consolidated Earnings Do Seem to Work

One piece of actual good news. Later yesterday, the UK popped back up on my earnings under the new on-site reporting. It wasn’t on there before, and it was under a dollar, but it appeared on its own. So if you’re earning in those other countries, it does look like it will show up on your consolidated report automatically. There’s nothing you need to add or configure to make that happen.

What to Do If You Get the Prompt

I’m not going to tell you what to answer. I can’t, because I don’t know what Amazon does with a “yes” that isn’t accurate, and I’m not going to recommend anyone misrepresent themselves. What I can tell you is to be prepared: if you’re outside the US and you select no, there is a possibility it impacts your US placements, and your US earnings along with them.

Before you answer, take a snapshot of your current US placements on your top earners so you have a baseline. Then check daily afterward. If you want to do that systematically, Oink’s Storefront Cross Check and placement tracking give you a product-by-product view of where you’re showing up so you’ll know within a day whether anything changed. Keep me posted on what you see, and I’ll share anything else I find as soon as I find it.

If you want to know exactly where your videos are placed and get alerted when that changes, that’s what Oink for Influencers is built for. Grab it and stop finding out about placement changes a week late.

I'm an Amazon Influencer since 2023 and blogger since 2021. My goal is to help you succeed in the Amazon Influencer Program.

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