Shopify internationalization: how to optimize your store for international markets

Expanding abroad is a challenge. With the right measures and tools, Shopify internationalization works anyway, in many cases even without a second store. In this article we explain how to extend your online store from the local to the international market: which features Shopify brings today, when apps make sense and at what point a separate store for a country is worth it.

We revised this article from August 2023 in October 2026. A lot has changed in international selling with Shopify since then. The details on features and prices reflect the Shopify Help Center and the Shopify pricing page as of October 2026. Both change constantly, so check the current status before making a decision.

Selling internationally with Shopify: check the market first

If you want to win international customers, we recommend starting small and analyzing the market carefully before offering your products. Check the competition and calculate how profitable selling abroad is for you. Do you know the value of your product in the target market, and is it easy for potential customers to reach? Also consider what delivery and returns will look like.

These questions should be answered before you create the first market in your Shopify admin:

• Demand and competition: Is your product searched for in the target country, and at what prices do others offer it?
• Margin: What is left after shipping, duties, payment fees and returns?
• Logistics: How long does delivery take, and who handles returns?
• Payment methods: Which payment methods do customers in the target country expect?
• Law and taxes: Which obligations apply to pricing information, legal texts and VAT?

The first step can then be to translate your existing Shopify store into the language of the target country and to display prices in the local currency.

VAT when selling to other EU countries

If you sell from Germany to private customers in other EU countries, you need to keep an eye on VAT. Under § 3c of the German VAT Act (UStG), for intra-community distance sales the place of supply is generally the country where the goods arrive at the customer. That country's VAT then applies. An exception applies to businesses established in only one EU country, as long as these distance sales, together with certain services to private customers in other EU countries, did not exceed €10,000 in total in the previous calendar year and do not exceed it in the current year. For reporting these sales there is a special taxation procedure under § 18j UStG, known as the One-Stop-Shop (OSS). In Germany, the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) is responsible.

This is not tax advice. Clarify the details with your tax advisor before opening the first market.

Pricing information: unit price and strikethrough prices

Rules also apply to pricing information. In Germany, § 4 of the Price Indication Ordinance (Preisangabenverordnung, PAngV) requires, for goods offered by weight, volume, length or area, the unit price ("Grundpreis") in addition to the total price, and it must be unambiguous, clearly recognizable and easy to read. We explain how to set it up in Shopify in the article Unit price (Grundpreis) on Shopify. Important for international selling: Shopify displays the unit price in all markets with the same unit. A product therefore cannot be labeled per 100 grams in one market and per ounce in another.

If you announce a price reduction, you must additionally show consumers the lowest total price you charged in the 30 days before the reduction (§ 11 PAngV). The rule goes back to the European Price Indication Directive, which according to the Shopify Help Center applies to price reductions for customers across the entire European Economic Area. Shopify recommends entering the lowest price of the last 30 days in the "Compare-at price" field and the current price in the price field. The compare-at price must be higher than the price.

Shopify Markets: the foundation of internationalization

Today, the heart of Shopify internationalization is Shopify Markets. A market is a group of customers for whom you tailor the store. Usually these are countries or regions. Shopify also knows markets for customer groups, retail locations and sales channels. You manage all markets on the Markets page in your Shopify admin.

Per market you can define, among other things:

• currency and prices
• language
• which products are available
• theme content
• domain, subdomain or subfolder
• taxes and, where available, shipping options

This lets you manage several countries from a single store without building a separate store for each country. According to the Shopify pricing page, translating the storefront, prices in local currencies, local payment methods, local domains and estimating and collecting duties and taxes are included in all plans. Individual features are tied to conditions, above all to Shopify Payments.

Domains: subfolder, subdomain or country domain

For each market you decide under which address it appears. Shopify offers three options: subfolders like yourstore.de/fr, subdomains like fr.yourstore.de and separate country domains like yourstore.fr. Shopify recommends subfolders for most stores because they are the easiest to set up and manage and share the authority of the main domain. Some search engines treat subdomains as separate websites. Country domains send a particularly strong signal for a specific country but have to be registered separately for each market.

The hreflang tags that tell search engines which language and country version of a page belongs where are set automatically by Shopify by default, including an x-default version. The "Automatic hreflang tags" setting is under Online Store > Preferences in the "Social sharing image and SEO" section. According to Shopify, you should only turn it off if another hreflang solution is in use. The sitemap also automatically contains the addresses of all markets.

Prices in local currency and price rounding

By default, Shopify converts prices into the local currency at the current exchange rate. You can also adjust prices per market by a percentage or set fixed product prices for individual countries via catalogs. Customers then see their currency in the store, at checkout and for refunds.

So that converted prices do not end in odd amounts, there are rounding rules. They are only available to stores with Shopify Payments, and Shopify Payments must be available in the respective country. Prices are rounded up to values that Shopify sets per currency, and you cannot define your own rounding rules. More generally: according to Shopify, only stores with Shopify Payments get the full feature set for prices in local currencies. If you want exact prices like 49 francs in a country, set them as fixed prices.

Duties and import taxes

For shipments to countries outside the EU, you can calculate and collect duties and import taxes directly at checkout. Your customers then pay no unexpected fees on delivery. Within a country and between EU countries, Shopify does not calculate duties. Your products need correct HS codes (customs tariff numbers) for this, and orders where customers paid the duties at checkout are shipped with a shipping label for delivered duty paid (DDP). Shopify charges a transaction fee for every checkout that calculates duties and import taxes, including test orders. Not every destination country and not every checkout customization is supported.

Automatic redirection and country selector

Shopify can automatically direct visitors to the matching version of the store based on their location and browser language. A language is only considered if it has been added, assigned to the market, translated and published.

An exception applies to the EU: Shopify does not automatically redirect customers from the EU who open a localized experience on the country domain of an EU country, such as .de, .fr or .at. Shopify's former Geolocation app, which suggested country and language to customers, was shut down on March 24, 2025. For EU customers on EU country domains, Shopify recommends an approach where the customer consents, for example through a geolocation app from the Shopify App Store. Regardless of this, your theme needs a country and language selector that customers can use to switch themselves.

Managed Markets: currently only for merchants in the US, Canada and the UK

Managed Markets extends the international features with services from Global-e. Global-e becomes the merchant of record, meaning the seller in the legal sense, and handles taxes, local payment methods and customs clearance, among other things. According to the Shopify Help Center, Managed Markets is available to merchants based in the continental US and to certain stores in Canada and the UK. For merchants based in Germany it is therefore currently not an option.

Translating your Shopify store: multiple languages with Translate & Adapt

Shopify themes are usually prepared for translations and multiple currencies. Depending on your plan, you can activate up to 20 languages (Basic, Grow and Advanced) or up to 30 with Shopify Plus. You add languages under Settings > Languages and then assign them to the appropriate markets.

For translation, Shopify recommends its own app Translate & Adapt. It is free and translates up to two languages automatically. Further languages you translate yourself or have translated, either directly in the app, via CSV import or with a compatible third-party app. Have automatic translations proofread before publishing, especially product copy, size information and notes on shipping and returns. The app does not translate your store policies automatically, they can only be translated by hand.

Translate & Adapt can also adapt content per market, not just translate it. Shopify gives the example of different terms for the same product in British and American English. In German-speaking countries this helps, for instance, with Swiss spelling without ß or with Austrian terms such as "Jänner" for January.

Translating your Shopify theme

All free Shopify themes support multiple languages. The prerequisite is a language selector in the theme that customers can use to switch. Custom themes must build internal links via the Liquid object routes so that they lead to the right address in every language. Fixed theme texts, such as button labels, notices and error messages, are also translated in Translate & Adapt, via CSV or with a third-party app.

When we develop a custom Shopify theme for you or redesign your store, we set up the country and language selector, translations and currencies at the same time. Find out more under our services.

Translated URLs

The addresses of products and other pages can now be translated as well. yourstore.de/products/stuhl can, for example, become yourstore.de/fr/products/chaise in the French version. Three restrictions apply: the path segment such as /products/ remains untranslated. Automatic translation in Translate & Adapt does not cover URL handles, you enter them by hand for each language. And translated addresses apply per language, not per market.

Third-party apps: Langify and Geolizr

Besides the built-in features, there are apps in the Shopify App Store. Langify translates store content and texts of other apps, detects the visitor's language and can redirect them automatically. Geolizr from the same vendor shows country-specific content, pop-ups and notices, redirects visitors to the matching country store and displays prices in the local currency. Both apps are still listed in the App Store in October 2026.

Before installing, check whether Shopify's built-in features are already enough. Additional apps often add more code to the store and ongoing costs. They make sense above all where Shopify itself holds back, for example with country notices and redirects for customers from the EU.

Advantages: one store for several countries

Selling abroad through your existing Shopify store has a low entry barrier. You do not have to invest in new store infrastructure. Orders, customers and data from all countries come together in one store, and you maintain products, inventory and apps only once. Shopify themes are prepared for translations, and for special cases there are apps that help you localize.

Translating your store and showing prices in the local currency signals to customers that you are adapting to their market. This route is particularly suitable for merchants who are just starting out abroad.

Disadvantages: the limits of a single store

Many restrictions from the first version of this article no longer exist. Theme content, product availability, prices and domains can be adjusted per market, and product addresses can be translated. Some limits remain, however:

• Product, article and blog tags cannot be translated. Only customers in the store's default language see the tag filter on collection pages.
• Translated addresses apply per language, not per market. Germany and Austria therefore use the same German product handles.
• Price rounding and the full feature set for local currencies require Shopify Payments.
• The unit price is displayed in all markets with the same unit.
• All markets share one store: the same product database, the same apps and the same basic settings. If you need a fundamentally different range, a separate brand or a separate purchase process in the target country, you will hit limits here.

If you want to tailor your store even more closely to foreign customers, a separate store designed around the needs of that audience can therefore make sense.

Multiple Shopify stores: when a second store is worth it

If you already have experience in foreign markets, consider opening another store or moving to Shopify Plus. First check whether your product suits the new audience, assess your competitors and decide whether you can export your products on a larger scale. Once you are ready to expand your international sales, an additional store is the next step.

A separate store gives you more freedom to customize your offer, develop your advertising and adapt the purchase process to local needs. The price for this: the stores are independent of each other. Settings, products, collections and inventory are not synced between them, apps are billed per store, and paid themes need a separate license for each store. So you maintain a lot twice or need a solution that syncs data between the stores.

In many cases, one store with several markets is therefore the sensible start. A second store is more likely to pay off when a country becomes so important that its own campaigns, its own range or its own team justify the double maintenance effort.

Are additional stores included in the Shopify subscription?

That depends on the plan. On the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans, each store is billed separately, even if several stores belong to one organization. A second store therefore needs its own subscription. According to the Shopify pricing page, the plans cost €27 (Basic), €79 (Grow) and €289 (Advanced) per month when paid annually, and €36, €105 and €384 when paid monthly (as of October 2026).

With Shopify Plus you can run up to nine additional stores at no extra charge, so-called expansion stores. Together with the main store that is ten stores in one contract. You can set up each of them with its own payment and shipping options for a different market. According to Shopify, however, expansion stores must be extensions of the main brand, with the same store name and branding, and offer the same type of goods. They are therefore not intended for a separate brand in the target country.

According to the Shopify Help Center, Shopify Plus costs €2,250 per month on a one-year term or €2,100 per month on a three-year term. For more complex, high-volume businesses, a revenue-based platform fee may be added.

If you are on a smaller plan, you can therefore either move to Shopify Plus or keep your plan and open another store with its own subscription for foreign customers. When Plus pays off depends on how many stores you want to run and which other Plus features you use.