Chart 01 · markets served from one Shopify Plus organizationequirectangular · 5° grid
Internationalization on Shopify: the complete guide.
By Makro · Shopify Plus PartnerUpdated June 20269 chapters · 25 min
Everything that decides whether international selling on Shopify works: Markets vs expansion stores, multi-entity Shopify Payments, ERP routing across subsidiaries, multi-currency, 20 languages, duties and merchant of record, and B2B price lists across regions. Written from implementation work, verified against Shopify's current documentation.
Chapter 01 · Why Shopify for globaland where it stops
Markets gives you the rails. The enterprise work starts where the settings screen ends.
Waypoint 1 · the rails
Markets is the native engine
One admin, up to 50 markets on Plus. Local currency, 20 languages, automatic hreflang, duties at checkout, per-market catalogs and domains. The infrastructure is genuinely there.
Waypoint 2 · the edge
It is not a settings screen for long
Multi-entity finance, ERP consolidation across subsidiaries, international B2B price lists, and merchant-of-record decisions are architecture, not configuration. Get them wrong and they are expensive to unwind.
Waypoint 3 · the work
Decide the architecture once
One store with Markets, business entities, expansion stores, or a hybrid. Then wire orders, inventory, pricing, and tax to the right legal entity in the right system, every time.
TakeawayTreat internationalization as an architecture decision with a finance dimension, not a checklist of settings.
Chapter 02 · Markets vs entities vs expansion storesthe decision chart
One store, expansion stores, or both?
A Shopify store maps to one catalog, one theme, one admin. Markets multiplies it across regions; business entities split its money and tax; expansion stores clone it entirely. Each answer is expensive to unwind, so decide it first, with finance in the room.
Dimension
Markets · one storethe default
Business entities · one storePlus · multi-entity payments
Expansion storesthe exception
Legal entities & payouts
One entity, one payout setup. Multi-currency payouts to up to 8 accounts.
Several entities in one store. Each gets its own Shopify Payments account, payout currency, bank, and tax registration. Orders route by market.
One entity per store. Full separation, full duplication.
Catalog & inventory
One product source. Per-market catalogs, pricing, availability. Inventory pooled by location.
Same as Markets. Entities change the money, not the catalog.
No native sync of products, inventory, customers, or orders between stores. A PIM and middleware become mandatory.
B2B price lists
Catalogs + price lists per market; one price list per currency.
Same engine; terms and vaulted cards per company location.
Separate B2B store possible when wholesale needs full isolation.
Local payment gateways
Local methods auto-appear per market via Shopify Payments.
Per-entity Shopify Payments accounts; regional acquiring per entity.
Use when a region requires a gateway the main store cannot run.
SEO & domains
Subfolders share authority; auto hreflang across markets.
Same as Markets.
ccTLDs split authority; hreflang must be stitched across stores.
Apps, themes, QA
One stack, one release cycle.
One stack, one release cycle.
Every app licensed per store; every theme maintained per store; QA multiplies.
Operational overhead
Lowest. One admin for everything.
Low. Adds entity governance and reconciliation.
Highest. Plus includes 1 + 9 stores; each extra store carries a monthly fee.
Hard constraints
3 markets below Plus; 50 on Plus.
Incompatible with Managed Markets and automated tax filing. Requires New Markets.
Justified by independent P&Ls, divergent brand + assortment, or separate release cycles.
Default to Markets (one store) when
Regions share most of the catalog and the brand.
You want one admin, one app stack, one release cycle.
Legal separation is solved by business entities, not by separate stores.
SEO authority should consolidate on one domain.
Carve out an expansion store only when
A region runs a genuinely independent P&L and team.
Assortment and brand both diverge materially.
A required regional gateway cannot live in the main store.
Release cycles must be independent. Most enterprises land on a hybrid.
50
markets per store on Plus · 3 below Plus
1 + 9
production stores included in a Plus contract
0
native data sync between expansion stores
⊗
multi-entity payments excludes Managed Markets + auto tax filing
TakeawayMarkets is the default. Business entities solve legal and tax separation without store sprawl. Expansion stores are the exception that must be argued for.
Chapter 03 · Migration & consolidationthree charts become one
Most global expansions start as migrations.
Merchants rarely internationalize a store they are happy with. They arrive with regional ccTLD sprawl on Magento or Salesforce Commerce Cloud, three catalogs that drifted apart, and an ERP wired to each one. Consolidating that estate onto one Shopify Plus organization, while carrying the rankings across, is one project, not two.
Before · three disconnected chartslegacy estate
Three stores, three catalogs, three ERP connections, three app stacks. Catalogs drift, SEO authority splits across domains, and every change ships three times.
After · one chart, one networkshopify plus org
One store, six markets, three entities, one ERP. 301 maps and hreflang carry the rankings across. One admin runs everything.
Three things decide whether the consolidation succeeds. SEO survives the move when legacy ccTLDs map to the new market structure with full 301 coverage; Shopify then auto-generates hreflang, canonicals, and language-aware sitemaps per market. Catalogs reconcile rather than copy: drifted regional catalogs merge into one product source, with per-market pricing and content adaptation where regions genuinely differ. And grandfathering gets checked first: stores using per-market customizations from before April 25, 2025 keep entitlements a fresh build would not get, so audit before touching anything.
Every order lands in the right subsidiary. Or your books are wrong in three currencies.
The enterprise pattern is hub-and-spoke: one Shopify organization, one ERP, multiple subsidiaries. Orders route out by market and entity. Inventory and pricing flow in by location and price list. FX has to map correctly at every hop, or international sales contaminate the wrong company code. None of this is native.
Departures · orders leaving Shopify for the ERP routed by market → entity → subsidiary
#10412European Union→ EU B.V.NetSuite · EU01EURposted
#10413North America→ US Inc.NetSuite · US01USDposted
#10414United Kingdom→ UK Ltd.NetSuite · UK01GBPposted
#10415Switzerland→ EU B.V.NetSuite · EU01CHF→EURfx mapped
#10416Japan→ US Inc.NetSuite · US01JPY→USDfx mapped
Arrivals · what flows into the organization
PIM · SalsifyPer-market product data, translated attributes, and regional assets publish into one product source. The same feed serves any carve-out store.
ERP price listsSubsidiary price files become market catalogs and B2B price lists, one per currency, maintained through the Admin GraphQL PriceList API.
Inventory by locationWarehouse feeds per region map to Shopify locations, pooled per store, allocated by market.
Departures · what flows out, by entity
Orders → subsidiaryEach order posts to the ERP company code that owns the entity: NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Sage X3. Refunds and edits travel the same path back.
IntercompanyFX mapping and intercompany transfers when stock and revenue cross entities, so month-end closes without manual journals.
3PL per regionFulfillment routes to the regional warehouse; tracking and status return per market, in the buyer's language.
The only part Shopify does natively is entity-to-market mapping: each market is assigned a business entity, and that entity processes the market's transactions, payouts, and tax. Everything beyond it is integration work: order routing by subsidiary lives in middleware (Celigo, a native ERP connector, or custom), and presentment, settlement, and ledger currency are three different numbers that must be mapped per market for finance to reconcile payouts without manual journal entries. Done right, sales by market and entity reconcile to subsidiary ledgers and the CFO sees one truth, not three exports.
TakeawayMulti-entity Shopify Payments collapses store sprawl into one store, but the ERP routing that makes it real is built, not configured.
Local currency is a Shopify Payments capability, not a theme trick. The buyer pays in market currency; you settle and report in yours. The work is the pricing strategy and the fee math.
brand.com/nl
Market: European Union · Entity: EU B.V.
Rackmount KVM-console 17"RKCONS17 · aantal 2€ 1.198,00
Subtotaal€ 1.198,00
Verzending · DHL Express€ 24,00
InvoerrechtenDDP€ 96,40
BTW 21% · inclusief€ 228,80
Totaal€ 1.318,40
iDEALKlarnaBancontactKaart
presentment EUR · settlement EUR · ledger EU01 duties collected at checkout · no doorstep surprise
130+
Currencies presented and settled locally via Shopify Payments. Third-party gateways cannot present local currency natively: no Shopify Payments, no native multi-currency.
1.5–3%
Conversion fee by region and method, charged on the gross basis since April 2026. Manual fixed rates lock the price but still carry the fee. Model it per market before committing to local pricing.
3
Pricing modes: automatic rates, manual fixed rates, or fixed prices per market through catalogs and price lists, set at catalog scale via the Admin GraphQL PriceList API. Rounding rules are preset per currency.
8
Payout bank accounts under multi-currency payouts, and per-entity payout accounts under multi-entity payments. Settlement currency is an architecture decision, not a default.
12+
Local payment methods appear per market automatically: iDEAL, Klarna, Bancontact, TWINT, BLIK, MobilePay and more. QA every market's method mix before launch.
Chapter 06 · Multi-language20 languages · 1 admin
Twenty languages are native. A translation pipeline is not.
Every paid plan publishes up to 20 languages from one admin, and Shopify generates hreflang, canonicals, and sitemaps once markets have distinct URLs. The catch sits in the pipeline: free machine translation stops at 2 languages, and real localization is adaptation, not translation. Three ways to run it:
Adapts content per market in the same language: US Sweaters, UK Jumpers.
Auto hreflang, canonicals, language-aware sitemaps.
Machine auto-translation capped at 2 languages, no upgrade path.
Manual review only; no TMS, no glossary.
Fit · 1–2 markets, lean catalogs
Translations API pipeline
enterprise default
TMS-connected custom workflow
All 20 languages; machine or human translation flows in programmatically.
Everything translatable, including metafields and metaobjects once enabled on the definition.
Digest-checked writes: stale translations are rejected or flagged, so governance is enforceable.
Market-scoped adaptation via the API; content stays in Shopify's data model.
It is a build: TMS, glossary, and outdated-flag handling are yours to wire.
Fit · enterprise catalogs, glossary-driven, at scale
Proxy apps
Weglot · Langify
third-party translation layer
Escapes the 2-language cap fast; effectively unlimited tiers.
Catches stray strings the native pipeline misses.
Vendor TM and glossary tooling included.
Priced per word or pageview; data lives partly outside Shopify.
Proxy can bypass native hreflang; must be audited.
Fit · fast start; weigh the exit cost
What cannot be translated
Product handles can be localized; structural path segments and tags cannot. URL strategy has to absorb that before launch, not after.
The default-language trap
Changing the store's default language deletes existing translations for the target language. Export everything first. Every time.
Checkout ships pre-translated
Checkout and theme system strings come localized in 33 languages. Your job is the catalog, the content, and the brand voice per market.
Chapter 07 · Duties, tax & merchant of recordborder control
Who is the seller of record? The question your CFO will ask first.
Shopify offers two fundamentally different compliance postures, and the category's most common mistake is conflating them. Margin, liability, and architecture all hang on this choice.
Seller of record: you
Self-managed
Shopify Markets + Shopify Tax
RegistrationsYours to hold: OSS / IOSS in the EU, UK VAT, US nexus, each on its own threshold.
DutiesCalculated and collected at checkout on all plans, once products carry HS codes + country of origin.
FilingShopify Tax calculates and reports; filing stays with you or a filing app.
EconomicsKeeps margin and control. Per-order duty fee, no revenue share.
Works withMulti-entity payments. This is the posture multi-entity merchants must take.
Merchant of record: Global-e
Managed Markets
Global-e merchant-of-record service
RegistrationsNone needed abroad. Registration, remittance, and guaranteed duties are handled.
DutiesGuaranteed landed cost at checkout, with local payments and FX included.
FilingHandled inside the service.
EconomicsPercentage of international revenue plus FX. Simplicity priced as a fee.
Works withNot with multi-entity payments or automated tax filing. One posture per architecture.
Notice · Aug 29, 2025
US de minimis eliminated. Every US import now incurs duties regardless of value. Under-$800-ships-free is obsolete; US-bound flows need re-architecting.
Notice · hard gate
No HS code, no calculation. Duties at checkout require HS codes and country of origin on every product. Remediate at catalog scale, not by hand.
Notice · incoterms
DDP collects everything at checkout: one all-in price, no doorstep surprise. DAP leaves the carrier to bill on delivery, with refusals to match. Default to DDP.
Chapter 08 · International B2Bcompanies × catalogs × currencies
Resellers in three regions. Price lists in three currencies.
B2B on Shopify runs on the same Markets engine: companies, company locations, catalogs, price lists, net terms. The constraint nobody mentions: a price list holds exactly one currency, and it must match the market's currency.
Wholesale manifestsample
Nordview Distribution GmbH reseller · EU
LocationCatalogCurrencyTerms
Hamburg DCEU Reseller T1EURNet 30
Wien OfficeEU Reseller T1EURNet 30
Calder Supply Co. reseller · NA
LocationCatalogCurrencyTerms
Toronto DCNA Reseller T2CADNet 45
Chicago DCNA Reseller T1USDNet 30
Meridian Tech Pty direct · APAC
LocationCatalogCurrencyTerms
Sydney HQAPAC DirectAUDNet 60
01
One price list, one currency
EUR resellers buy from the EUR list, USD from the USD list. Local-currency wholesale means one engineered price list per currency, with no automatic FX between them.
02
Market currency must match
B2B catalogs ride the Markets engine, so a location's price list currency has to equal its market's currency. Currency architecture comes first.
03
Catalog caps are real
Unlimited catalogs on Plus, 3 below Plus, and a hard 25 per company location. Layer regions and tiers and this becomes architecture, not trivia.
04
Terms live on the location
Net 7 to 90, vaulted cards, drafts with PO numbers, all per company location. Deposits and partial payments are Plus-only.
05
Exemption is integration work
Reseller tax exemption and regional B2B tax handling are wired into the entity that owns the market, not toggled in settings.
06
Separate B2B store? Usually no
B2B lives in the main store unless wholesale needs a fully isolated catalog, brand, or operational stack.
Chapter 09 · FAQ14 entries
International selling on Shopify, asked and answered.
01Should I use Shopify Markets or separate stores for international?+
Use Markets, one store, as the default: shared catalog, inventory, orders, apps, and discounts, with per-market currency, language, domain, and pricing. Use expansion stores only when regions need genuinely independent P&Ls, materially different products and brand, incompatible payment gateways, or separate release cycles. Most enterprise brands land on a hybrid: Markets for most regions plus a carve-out store where isolation is mandatory.
02Can Shopify handle multiple legal entities and tax registrations?+
Yes. With multi-entity Shopify Payments on Plus, a single store can sell as several legal entities, each with its own Shopify Payments account, payout currency, bank account, and tax registration, with orders routed to the right entity by market. Multi-entity is incompatible with Managed Markets and with Shopify's automated tax filing, so the architecture has to be chosen deliberately.
03Do I need a separate B2B store for international wholesale?+
Usually no. Native B2B (companies, company locations, catalogs, price lists, net terms) runs inside the main store using the Markets engine. A separate B2B store is justified only when wholesale needs a fully isolated catalog, brand, or operational stack. The main constraint to plan for: each price list is single-currency, so local-currency selling means one price list per currency with no automatic FX.
04How much does Shopify international expansion cost?+
Most enterprise programs run roughly 12 to 32 weeks, driven by four scope drivers: storefront approach (theme, custom, or headless), store count (one Markets store vs expansion stores), ERP integration depth, and B2B buildout. Shopify Plus includes the main store plus 9 expansion stores; additional stores carry a monthly per-store fee.
05What is the difference between Shopify Markets and Managed Markets?+
Markets is the native, self-managed engine for currencies, languages, domains, catalogs, and duties, where you remain the seller of record and hold your own tax registrations. Managed Markets uses Global-e as merchant of record to handle tax registration and remittance, guaranteed duties, and local payments for a percentage fee plus FX. Managed Markets removes compliance burden; self-managed Markets keeps control and margin.
06How does Shopify handle duties and import taxes at checkout?+
Shopify can calculate and collect duties and import taxes at checkout on all plans, provided products carry HS codes and country of origin. Collect under DDP so the customer pays one all-in price, or DAP so the carrier bills on delivery. Since August 29, 2025, all US imports incur duties regardless of value because the de minimis exemption was eliminated.
07Which ERP systems integrate with Shopify for multi-entity expansion?+
The standard enterprise pattern maps one Shopify organization to one ERP with multiple subsidiaries: NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Sage X3, Odoo. Orders route to the correct subsidiary by market or entity, inventory feeds back per location, and a PIM such as Salsify pushes per-market catalog data. Middleware handles entity routing, FX mapping, and intercompany flows.
08How many markets and languages can one Shopify store support?+
Shopify Plus supports up to 50 markets per store; non-Plus plans are capped at 3. Any plan from Basic up can publish up to 20 languages from one admin, with the language ceiling identical across plans. Free machine auto-translation covers only 2 languages, so additional languages need manual, API, or third-party translation.
09Does multi-language hurt my SEO?+
No, configured correctly it helps. Once languages are published and markets have distinct URLs, Shopify auto-generates hreflang tags, self-referencing canonicals, and language-aware sitemaps, and crawlers index every version. Subfolders share domain authority; subdomains and ccTLDs isolate it. Product handles can be translated but structural path segments cannot.
10What is the difference between translation and localization?+
Translation renders the same content in another language. Localization adapts the experience to a market: currency, sizing, imagery, return policies, even different wording within the same language. Shopify's Translate & Adapt supports both via market-scoped content. Localization is what moves conversion, not translated strings alone.
11Can I show local currency without Shopify Payments?+
No. Native local-currency presentment and settlement require Shopify Payments; third-party gateways cannot present local currencies. Buyers pay in their market currency while your store currency stays fixed, and conversion fees of 1.5 to 3 percent apply depending on region and method.
12How do I keep inventory and product data consistent across multiple stores?+
Shopify does not natively sync products, inventory, customers, or orders between separate expansion stores. Consistency comes from a PIM feeding per-store catalogs and an ERP or middleware layer syncing inventory by location and consolidating orders. This hidden cost is a primary reason to consolidate onto Markets where the model allows.
13What does an international Shopify expansion agency actually do?+
It designs the market and entity architecture, configures Markets (currencies, languages, domains, catalogs, duties), integrates the ERP and PIM for multi-entity order and inventory flows, builds localization, sets up duties and tax compliance, handles international SEO and migration redirects, and runs phased market launches. The high-value work is the multi-entity ERP integration and B2B configuration the platform does not do natively.
14How long does an international rollout take, and how should we sequence markets?+
Plan 12 to 32 weeks depending on scope, then launch two markets at a time with 60 to 90 day measurement windows rather than several at once. Sequencing controls risk on finance, ops, marketing, and support, and validates currency, duty, and localization economics before scaling.
This guide is how we think. The architecture session is how we work.