Almost every UK Shopify brand doing £50k+/month gets international orders it did not ask for. Usually Ireland first, then Germany, the Netherlands, the US and Australia. Most of those orders are a bad experience: prices in pounds, a shipping quote that appears at the last step, and a customs charge on the doorstep that turns into a chargeback. Shopify Markets fixes the front end of that problem. This is how we set it up so the back end holds up too.
Shopify Markets vs expansion stores
Markets runs multiple countries from one store: one catalogue, one admin, per-market pricing, currencies, domains and languages. Expansion stores are separate Shopify stores per region. In 2026 Markets is the default answer for almost everyone. Go to expansion stores only if you need genuinely different catalogues, separate inventory and fulfilment entities, or region-specific legal entities with their own payment processing.
Which markets to launch first
Pull the last 12 months of orders by shipping country, and Google Analytics sessions by country. Rank by (sessions × existing conversion rate). For most UK brands the order is:
- Ireland — English, EUR, short shipping, high affinity. Easiest win.
- EU core (DE, NL, FR) — high volume, needs duties/VAT handled properly.
- United States — huge, English-speaking, but shipping cost and returns are the constraint. Only viable with a US 3PL or high AOV.
- Australia / NZ — strong UK brand affinity, long shipping times, good for premium products.
Launch one market at a time. A half-built five-market rollout converts worse than a well-built single one.
Market structure and domains
Three options for URLs: subfolders (groweyo.co.uk/en-ie), subdomains (ie.brand.com) or separate ccTLDs. Subfolders are the default and the right SEO choice for most — authority consolidates on one domain and Shopify generates hreflang automatically. Use a .com as the primary domain if you can; a .co.uk primary with EU subfolders works but reads as UK-first to European shoppers.
Set the primary market to the UK, then create markets for Ireland, "Europe" (a grouped market with per-country overrides), United States and so on. Grouped markets are fine for pricing and language; split them only when countries need different duties or shipping treatment.
Pricing and currency
- Local currency, always. Turn on local currencies with Shopify Payments. Enable rounding rules (e.g. €X.99) so prices look native rather than converted.
- Per-market price adjustments. Add a percentage uplift for markets where you absorb duties or higher shipping. 8–15% is typical for the EU when you ship DDP. Use fixed prices on hero products if the rounding produces odd numbers.
- Tax-inclusive display for the EU. UK customers expect VAT-inclusive prices; so do EU customers. Set "include or exclude tax based on your customer's country" and configure EU VAT registrations.
Duties, VAT and IOSS — the part that kills conversion
Since Brexit, UK-to-EU parcels attract import VAT and, above €150, customs duty. If the customer pays on delivery (DAP), expect refusals, chargebacks and one-star reviews. The fix is DDP (delivered duty paid): collect duties and taxes at checkout and remit them.
- Under €150 to the EU: register for IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) via an EU intermediary. Charge destination VAT at checkout, remit monthly. Parcels clear without the customer paying anything. Shopify supports IOSS numbers in Markets tax settings.
- Over €150: use Shopify's Duties & Import Taxes (available on Advanced and Plus) to calculate and collect at checkout, and ship with a carrier that supports DDP (DHL Express, UPS, FedEx, or a consolidator like Global-e or Passport for lower volumes).
- Product HS codes and country of origin must be on every product for duty estimates to be accurate. Bulk-fill via CSV. Missing HS codes are the number one reason duty calculations are wrong.
- Northern Ireland follows EU goods rules for some categories — talk to your accountant before assuming NI is "just UK".
DDP shipping to Germany typically costs £3–£7 more per parcel than DAP. Brands that switched to DDP on our accounts saw EU conversion rates roughly double and chargebacks fall to near zero. The extra postage pays for itself several times over.
Shipping strategy
Show delivered cost as early as possible — on the product page via a market-aware shipping message, not at the last checkout step. Offer at least two options per market (economy tracked and express). For the US, if volume justifies it (500+ orders/month), a US 3PL with inventory positioned there cuts delivery from 7–10 days to 2–4 and removes duty friction entirely.
Localisation that matters
- Language. Translate & Adapt (Shopify's free app) covers the storefront and checkout. Machine translation is acceptable for product specs; have a native speaker review category copy, size guides and returns policy.
- Payment methods. iDEAL for the Netherlands, Bancontact for Belgium, Klarna across the Nordics and Germany, Afterpay in Australia. Conversion in Germany without invoice/Klarna options is measurably worse.
- Trust signals. Local returns address (or free returns), local phone number if possible, reviews in the local language, and delivery times stated per country.
- Sizing and units. EU sizes, centimetres, litres. Metafields per market keep this manageable.
International SEO on Shopify Markets
Shopify generates hreflang for market subfolders automatically. Check it with a crawler: every localised URL should list all alternates including x-default. Each market needs its own Search Console property (subfolder-level) and localised title tags — Translate & Adapt lets you edit meta titles per language. Don't translate URLs on launch; it breaks fewer things to keep handles identical across markets.
Marketing per market
Duplicate your Meta and Google campaigns per market with local currency, local landing URLs (the market subfolder) and local creative — a "free UK delivery" banner in a German ad is an easy way to burn budget. In Klaviyo, segment by country and market so a Dutch customer gets EUR prices and iDEAL in their abandoned checkout email. See our Performance Max guide for feed and campaign structure across countries.
International conversion is won at the customs form and the checkout, not in the ad. Get DDP and local payment methods right first; everything else is optimisation.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Shopify Plus to sell internationally?
No. Shopify Markets is available on all plans. Duties and import tax collection at checkout requires Advanced or Plus; on lower plans you can still ship DDP through a carrier or consolidator that handles the calculation.
What is IOSS and do UK Shopify stores need it?
IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) lets non-EU sellers charge EU VAT at checkout on consignments under €150 and remit it monthly via one return, so customers pay nothing on delivery. UK stores selling low-value goods to EU consumers should almost always use it, via an EU-based intermediary.
Should I use one store or separate stores per country?
One store with Shopify Markets for the vast majority. Separate expansion stores only make sense with genuinely different catalogues, separate legal entities or fulfilment networks.
Which country should a UK brand expand to first?
Ireland is usually first (English, EUR, short shipping). Then the EU core (Germany, Netherlands, France) once duties and VAT are handled. The US is high potential but needs a fulfilment plan.
Want this done for you?
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