Shopify Markets and International Expansion

Shopify Markets is how one Shopify store sells to several countries. A market is a group of countries or regions with its own pricing, languages and domains. Customers see prices in their currency, the content in their language, and only the products, shipping and payment methods set up for their market.

Use one store with Markets when the range, stock and team are shared, because it keeps one catalogue and one admin to maintain. Use expansion stores when regions have different ranges, warehouses, legal entities or teams. Shopify Plus includes the main store and 9 expansion stores, and some brands combine both approaches.

Shopify lets each market's web presence be a separate domain, a subdomain, or subfolders of your primary domain. Subfolders such as /fr or /de keep the authority of one domain and are simpler to run. Country domains can make sense when you already own them or when local trust matters more. We recommend one per market based on your current domain strength.

Each language version needs its own indexable URLs, translated titles and descriptions, and correct links to its alternatives so search engines show the right version in each country. We check this after set-up and fix gaps, because missing or conflicting alternate links can make the wrong country version rank.

Yes. Prices can be converted automatically from your base currency, adjusted per market, or, on plans that support it, set as fixed local prices for chosen products. Fixed prices give clean local price points but need maintaining. We check what your plan allows and agree which approach each market uses before launch.

We set up the Shopify side, but tax and duty treatment depends on where you are registered and how you ship, so the rules come from your accountant. We work with them to make sure the store shows prices, taxes and delivery costs the way your registrations require.

Yes. Most projects add markets to a store already trading in the UK. We review the catalogue, theme and apps for anything that does not handle other currencies or languages, then add markets one at a time so the UK store is never at risk.

Shopify Plus includes the main store and 9 expansion stores. Expansion stores suit regions with a different range, warehouse, legal entity or team, while Shopify Markets on one store suits regions that share the catalogue and stock.

Shopify's own Translate and Adapt app handles translations and market-specific content for many stores. Larger catalogues or content with a review workflow often use a translation app or a translation service connected to the store. We pick the approach based on catalogue size and who checks the translations.

Yes. The Storefront API lets a headless front end request prices, availability and content for a specific country and language, so a Hydrogen or other custom storefront can serve each market correctly. We set this up alongside the market structure.

As a fixed scope, quoted in writing after the structure decision. The quote depends on the number of markets and languages, the translation approach and whether you run one store or several. We do not quote before the structure is clear.