Shopify Markets in 2026: How to Sell Internationally From One Store

Shopify Markets is the set of tools built into every Shopify store for selling to customers in other countries from a single admin. You group countries into markets, then give each market its own currency, language, domain or subfolder, product catalog, pricing and duty settings. Creating regional markets is free on every plan, so a Basic store can sell in local currencies and languages without an extra subscription.

Managed Markets is the paid layer on top. It makes Global-e the merchant of record for your international orders, which means Global-e registers for and remits taxes, handles customs paperwork and guarantees the duties your customer sees at checkout. In exchange you pay a per-order fee: as of October 2026, 3.5% on Basic, Grow and Advanced, and 3.25% on Plus, plus currency conversion and normal card processing.

The right choice depends on how much compliance work you want to own. Markets alone keeps you as the merchant of record, so tax registration and customs stay your job. Managed Markets hands that job to Global-e but costs more per order and has some feature limits, such as no subscriptions and no B2B orders.

This guide covers what each plan can do, how currency and pricing work, how to structure domains and languages for search engines, and when Managed Markets is worth the fee. It is part of our Shopify resource hub.

What Shopify Markets is, and what changed in the naming

Shopify reorganized its international tools in 2024. According to the Shopify changelog, the product formerly called Markets Pro was renamed Managed Markets, and the Help Center section once titled Shopify Markets was renamed International. In the admin you still manage everything from the Markets page, and the Help Center still uses "Markets" for the core feature set.

A market has two parts. Conditions define who the market applies to, and customizations define what those customers see. Markets are no longer only about countries. Shopify's Markets overview lists several market types:

• Cross-border markets: one country or a group of countries and regions.
• B2B markets: company locations or groups of wholesale buyers.
• Retail markets: groups of physical store locations that need different products or prices.
• Channel markets: sales channels that need their own catalog, pricing or currency.
• Submarkets: markets inside a parent market that inherit its settings.

Customers who don't match any active market get the experience of your backup region, which defaults to your store's home country. Only customers in a country or region that belongs to an active market can check out, so a country you forgot to add is a country that can't buy.

What each plan can do with Markets

Basic plans can sell internationally with real localization. The plan differences show up in how far you can tailor the storefront and checkout per market. The table below follows Shopify's requirements and considerations page as of October 2026.

Retail markets are available on every plan, but customizing their catalogs requires POS Pro (included on Plus). If you are weighing a plan upgrade for international selling, the jump that matters most is usually Advanced, because it unlocks different banners, sections and checkout content per market. Our Shopify pricing plans guide compares the rest of the plan differences.

Currencies and pricing by market

To charge customers in more than one currency, your store must use Shopify Payments or Adyen. With any other payment provider, customers in every market pay in your store's default currency even if prices display differently.

When you create a single-country market, its currency is set to that country's local currency automatically. Multi-country markets default to your base currency with local currencies turned on, so each country sees its own currency. For each market you then pick how conversion works:

• Automatic (dynamic) exchange rates: prices follow the current market rate, and the currency conversion fee is built into the price the customer sees.
• Manual exchange rates: you fix the rate. The customer pays exactly the price you set, and the conversion fee comes out of your payout instead. You are responsible for keeping the rate current.
• Rounding: optional, and turns converted prices like 14.27 into tidier price points.

The currency conversion fee is 1.5% for US stores and 2% for the UK, the European Economic Area, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other regions, according to Shopify's local currencies page. Since 6 April 2026, Shopify calculates that fee on the gross order amount rather than the net amount after other fees. The fee isn't refunded when you refund an order, and refunds convert at the exchange rate on the day of the refund, so a currency swing can work for or against you. Our guide to Shopify transaction fees breaks down how these charges stack with card rates.

Beyond currency, catalogs let you control which products each market can buy and at what price. You can apply percentage price adjustments per market to cover higher shipping or conversion costs, or set fixed prices for specific products. Two practical limits to plan around: fixed-amount discounts can only be created in your default currency and are converted at checkout, and post-purchase offer apps only work in your default currency, so customers in other currencies won't see those offers.

Languages, domains and subfolders

Each market can have its own domain setup and languages. Shopify supports three structures:

• Subfolders, such as yourstore.com/fr/. Shopify says these share domain authority with your primary domain and recommends them for most stores because they are the easiest to set up and manage.
• Subdomains, such as fr.yourstore.com, which some search engines treat as separate sites that build their own authority over time.
• Country domains, such as yourstore.fr, which Shopify describes as the strongest local SEO signal for a specific country and best for stores with a strong presence there.

Adding a language makes the storefront ready for it, but you still need translations. Shopify's free Translate & Adapt app lets you edit translations side by side, translate SEO fields and URLs, and adapt wording between markets that share a language (US and UK English, for example). According to its App Store listing, it can auto-translate up to two languages for free, with unlimited manual translations. Review machine translations for product names, sizing and legal copy before you publish.

Keep in mind that only one theme can be published at a time. On Basic and Grow every market shares the same theme customization, so market-specific banners or sections need Advanced or Plus.

Duties, import taxes and who is the merchant of record

Every plan can configure tax-inclusive pricing and duty collection per market. If you collect duties at checkout, the customer pays them up front and the parcel can ship delivered duty paid (DDP), which avoids surprise charges at the door. If you don't, the customer may be billed by the carrier on delivery, which is a common cause of refused international parcels.

With Markets alone, you are the merchant of record. That means you are responsible for registering for and remitting taxes where required, classifying products for customs and keeping up with each destination's rules. For many stores selling a modest volume abroad, that is manageable. For others, it is the main reason to look at Managed Markets.

Managed Markets: when Global-e takes over compliance

Managed Markets adds Global-e as the merchant of record. According to Shopify's Managed Markets overview, Global-e registers for tax in the countries you sell to, remits duties and taxes, assigns HS codes automatically, guarantees the duty and tax amounts shown at checkout, and offers DDP shipping labels. US stores can buy DHL Express, DHL eCommerce and FedEx labels through it. Your storefront, brand and customer relationship stay yours, and support requests still go through Shopify Support.

To use it, your store needs the Basic plan or higher, an online store and Shopify Payments, and your store currency must match your home country's default currency. It is available to businesses based in the continental United States (not Puerto Rico or Guam) and, since 15 July 2026, to certain stores in Canada and the UK. Each country has extra requirements, such as at least one non-PO box location and a domestic fulfillment location.

Since March 2026, adaptive pricing can adjust international prices automatically to include duties, taxes, conversion and merchant of record fees, so customers see one all-in price and your payout stays close to a domestic order. The trade-offs are real, though. Managed Markets doesn't support subscriptions (they work only for domestic orders), B2B orders, multiple business entities, Shopify Collabs, redirects at checkout or zero-value orders, and you can't run it alongside the standalone Global-e app. A phone number is required at checkout for these orders.

International SEO: hreflang, redirects and indexing

The good news is that Shopify handles the most error-prone piece. According to Shopify's international SEO page, hreflang tags are generated automatically from your market and language configuration, and they update when you change domains or languages. The catch: tags are generated only for markets that have a distinct domain, subdomain or subfolder. If several countries share your root URL with currency switching only, search engines see one version of the page.

Shopify also notes that automatic redirection applies to customers while search engine crawlers are excluded, so every market version can be indexed. A few practical habits help:

• Give each language its own subfolder or domain rather than relying on currency changes alone.
• Translate titles, meta descriptions and URL handles, not just body copy. Translate & Adapt covers SEO fields and URLs.
• Avoid forcing visitors into a market with a hard redirect; let the geolocation prompt suggest a switch.
• Check Search Console for each subfolder or domain once indexed, and watch for duplicate-content warnings between same-language markets.

For the wider technical picture, see our guide to Shopify's technical SEO challenges.

A practical setup order

1. Confirm you use Shopify Payments (or Adyen) and that shipping rates exist for every country you plan to sell to. Markets can be activated only where shipping rates are set.
2. Start with one or two markets that already send traffic or orders, rather than switching on every country at once.
3. Choose a domain structure. Subfolders are the simplest default; pick country domains only if you will invest in each country separately.
4. Add languages, translate key pages and SEO fields, and review machine output.
5. Decide on automatic or manual exchange rates and rounding for each market.
6. Set duty and tax behavior, or evaluate Managed Markets if you don't want to be the merchant of record.
7. Place test orders in each market and check the confirmation emails, taxes and duty lines.

Conclusion

Shopify Markets gives every plan the essentials for selling abroad: local currencies, languages, domains, catalogs and duty settings. Advanced and Plus add per-market storefront and checkout control, and Managed Markets hands tax and customs compliance to Global-e for a per-order fee. Start small, structure URLs for search engines, and price your markets with the conversion fee in mind. If you need help planning international domains and translations, our Shopify SEO team works on multi-market stores.

Frequently asked questions