Shopify Internationalisation: Selling in Multiple Countries and Currencies

Shopify Markets: The Foundation of International Selling

Shopify Markets (available on all plans, enhanced on Plus) is Shopify’s native internationalisation solution. It lets you sell in multiple countries from a single Shopify store — with localised pricing, currencies, languages, domains, and payment methods for each market.

Before Shopify Markets, running an international store required separate Shopify stores for each region — each with its own inventory, orders, and admin. Markets changed this fundamentally.

Setting Up Shopify Markets

• Shopify Admin → Settings → Markets → Add market
• Choose countries/regions for the market
• Set pricing strategy: convert from your base currency, or set manual prices per market
• Enable local payment methods (iDEAL for Netherlands, Bancontact for Belgium, etc.)
• Set up market-specific domains: yourstore.com/eu, yourstore.de, or eu.yourstore.com

Multi-Currency Pricing

Shopify Payments handles multi-currency natively. Customers see prices in their local currency, pay in their local currency, and Shopify handles conversion and payouts in your base currency. Without Shopify Payments, you’ll need a third-party currency converter app, which is less seamless.

Pricing strategy options: auto-convert (apply an exchange rate to your base prices), fixed international prices (set specific prices per market to account for price sensitivity and competitive positioning), or rounding rules (£9.99 in UK becomes €10.99 in Europe, not €11.47).

International SEO: hreflang Tags

If you’re targeting the same language in multiple countries (UK English and Australian English) or multiple languages, hreflang tags tell Google which version of a page to show in which country’s search results. Shopify Markets auto-generates hreflang tags for your market subfolders or subdomains. Verify they’re correct in Google Search Console.

International Shipping and Fulfilment

• Duties and taxes — Shopify Markets can calculate and collect import duties at checkout so customers aren’t hit with surprise charges on delivery (common reason for international cart abandonment)
• Shipping rates by market — set different shipping rates for different countries. International shipping typically costs more; make this transparent at checkout.
• International 3PLs — for high-volume international markets, consider local fulfilment (3PL warehouses in EU, US, AUS) to reduce delivery times and costs

Localisation Beyond Currency

True internationalisation means more than currency conversion. Consider:

• Language — Shopify Markets supports multiple languages via Shopify’s native translation or apps like Weglot and Langify
• Date and size formats — US uses MM/DD/YYYY and US sizes; Europe uses DD/MM/YYYY and EU sizes
• Culturally appropriate imagery — product photography and lifestyle imagery should reflect local markets
• Local customer service — language-matched support channels build trust in new markets

Want to expand your Shopify store internationally? Our international ecommerce team handles full Shopify Markets setup and localisation. Book a free consultation or see our global projects.