Sell internationally with Markets

Before you start

A market is a group of customers, defined by conditions such as their country, that you can give their own currency, product availability, theme content, domain, language, taxes and, where your store has it, shipping options¹. This guide sets up a regional market: one or more countries outside your home country.

What to check first:

• Plan. Creating regional markets is free on all Shopify plans². Currency, domain, language, discount and duty and tax settings per market are on every plan. Theme customization and checkout and accounts pages per market need the Advanced plan or higher; checkout page blocks and business entities per market need Shopify Plus².
• Payments. Customers can pay in their local currency only if you use Shopify Payments or Adyen. With any other payment provider, every market pays in your store's default currency^2,3.
• Shipping. You need shipping rates for every country in a market before you can activate it^2,4.
• Staff access. A staff member needs several permissions to use the Markets page, including all order, product, analytics and discount permissions and the shipping, taxes and domains store settings².

Your store already has a domestic market, created from your store address and currency, and may show a suggested international market that is inactive by default⁴.

A worked example: a candle shop in the US that wants to sell to Canada creates a market called "Canada", adds Canada as its region, sets Canadian dollars with rounding, and keeps English as the language.

Steps

1. Add shipping rates for the new countries. Make sure every country you plan to include already has a shipping rate. A market with countries you do not ship to stays inactive⁴.

2. Create the market. From your Shopify admin, go to Markets and click Create market. In the Name section, enter a name, then set the status next to it to Draft so you can preview before customers see it⁴.

3. Choose the countries. In the Includes section, click Add condition and select Regions, then select the countries or regions⁴. To target only some states or provinces, open the country and select them⁴.

4. Review inherited settings. The Inherited section shows settings that come from your store defaults. Click the plus-circle icon next to a setting to change it for this market; it moves to the Customized section. Click Save⁴.

5. Set the currency. Open the market and click the plus icon next to Currency. Select the currency, then choose an exchange rate setting³. A dynamic rate tracks the market rate and adds a conversion fee of 1.5% or 2%, depending on your store's location, to the price the customer sees³. A manual rate is one you enter and keep up to date; the fee then comes out of your payout instead³. Optionally activate Rounding, click Done, then Save³.

6. Add a language, if you need one. Go to Settings > Languages, click Add language, select it and click Save⁵. A language must be added to the store before you can assign it to a market⁵.

7. Assign a domain and language. In Markets, open the market and click the plus-circle icon next to Domain / language⁵. Choose Subfolder (for example yourstore.com/fr/), Subdomain (fr.yourstore.com) or Separate domain (yourstore.fr, which must already be connected in Settings > Domains). Select the Language, click Done, then Save⁵.

8. Turn on automatic redirection. Go to Online Store > Preferences. In the Automatic redirection section, activate Country/region and, if you offer more than one language, Language. Click Save⁶.

9. Add country and language selectors. Go to Online Store, click Edit theme on your published theme, open the header or footer section, and activate the Country/region selector and Language selector. Click Save⁶. Shopify recommends keeping these even with redirection on, because location by IP address can be wrong for shoppers on a VPN or some mobile networks⁶.

10. Activate the market. Go to Markets, click the market, change the status from Draft to Active, and click Save⁴.

Check your work

• On the Markets page, confirm the new market shows as active. A draft market, or one with a country you do not ship to, stays inactive, and its customers cannot complete a purchase⁴.
• Use the country selector on your storefront to switch to a country in the new market and check that prices show in the expected currency, with rounding if you turned it on^3,6.
• Visit the subfolder, subdomain or domain you assigned and check that the store opens in the language you chose⁵.
• Pick a fixed-amount discount and check it at checkout in the new currency. Fixed-amount discounts are created in your default currency and converted at checkout².

Common problems

• "Customers in a country can't check out." Only customers in countries within an active market can check out². Customers in an inactive market get the backup region experience⁴. Add shipping rates for every country, then activate the market⁴.
• "Prices still show in my home currency." Local currencies need Shopify Payments or Adyen². In a multi-country market, check that Local currencies is still activated in the market's currency settings³.
• "The language I want isn't in the list." Add it first in Settings > Languages⁵.
• "My separate domain isn't offered." Connect it in Settings > Domains before you assign it to a market⁵.
• "I can't change the theme for one country." Theme customization per market needs the Advanced plan or higher. Only one theme can be published at a time².
• "A refund came out to a different amount." Refunds on foreign-currency orders convert at the rate on the refund date, and the original conversion fee is not refunded³.
• "Post-purchase offers don't show abroad." They work only in your default currency and are not shown in markets that use another currency².

Further reading

• Markets, Shopify Help Center¹
• Requirements and considerations for Markets, Shopify Help Center²