Shopify Markets: The Secret Weapon To Bring Your Business To International Market

The Global eCommerce market is expected to hit $5.55 Trillion till the end of 2022. Yeah, you heard us right, Trillion with a T.

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So why restrict your store to one country, when you can sell to all 195 countries in the world.

In this article, we will talk about Shopify markets, getting started with it, and how to set it up step-by-step. Plus, if you don't know the criterias for a perfect item, then this sell this now product categories is exactly what you need right now. 

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Outline

• What Is Shopify Markets?
• What Can You Do With Shopify Markets?
• Simplified currency conversion for international markets
• Language translation
• Region-specific domains & SEO
• Local Payment Methods
• Automatic collection of duty and import taxes
• Getting Started With Shopify Markets
• Common features made for Shopify & Shopify Plus merchants
• Additional features for merchants on Shopify Plus
• Shopify Markets Dashboard
• Access Shopify Markets
• Create Your Markets
• Country-Specific Domains & Languages
• Currency & Pricing
• Import Duties & Taxes
• Delivery & Shipping
• Payment Methods
• Global Inventory Function
• Wrapping Up Shopify Markets

I. What is Shopify Markets?

Shopify Markets is a cross-border management tool that helps merchants sell their products globally in an easier, better and more efficient manner.

Until now, merchants who wanted to sell globally had to rely on marketplaces or third-party retailers. But not anymore!

Shopify Markets come along with international selling tools and an array of features to help you scale, strategize, and manage your global market– all from a single store.

With Shopify Markets, merchants can sell directly to global customers without involving any third party. Shopify Markets does everything for you, which includes - currency conversions, language barriers, payment methods, and calculating duty & Import taxes.

Undoubtedly, Shopify markets aims to help merchants optimize their business for cross-border selling. Let’s dive in to know more about its features and capabilities.

II. What Can You Do With Shopify Markets?

01. Simplified Currency Conversions for International Markets

With Shopify Markets, you can automatically convert your storefront prices to 130+ currencies.

This is a significant feature when 92% of online customers prefer to shop on a website that offers products in their local currencies.

Shopify Markets automatically adjust your store prices based on the latest exchange rate.

Moreover, stores offering local currency products enjoy a 1.2X higher conversion rate.

02. Language Translation

As per Shopify, 75% of customers like to buy products in their native language. 

That makes localizing the language in your store as crucial as localizing currency.

Sometimes, with international eCommerce, it becomes overwhelming to provide a consistent customer experience.

But, these minor yet significant custom buying experiences can bring up to a 16% increase in conversion rates.

Shopify markets gives you the option of changing your store’s language accordingly. You can do this by simply going to the Languages tab inside Settings. 

In case you don’t see the language you want your store to be in, you can download third-party translation apps to translate and import data to your store.

Shopify Markets use third-party translation apps to translate your store and copy.

Language translation works on every page of your store, from product pages to checkout pages - it covers every piece of content.

03. Region-Specific Domains & SEO

No doubt, buying international domains boosts your SEO game and increases your site’s visibility on the Internet.

Shopify Markets enables a simple solution to your country-specific domain strategy. It automatically provides subfolders for every new market created.

For example, your US market can be at your example.com, while your Canada market at example.com/en.ca.

You can also create a subdomain like ca.example.com or region-specific domains like example.com.ca.

Once you have opted for a domain, Shopify Markets will automatically generate SEO tags to help your store gain visibility in the search results.

Even if a customer visits the wrong domain, Shopify will redirect them to the region-specific domain by locating their IP addresses.

04. Local Payment Methods

While credit cards are a universal payment method, some countries prefer other payment options. 

• In the US, 82% of customers prefer credit cards as their primary payment method
• In Europe, 80% of people prefer Digi-wallets like Paypal or Alipay for processing payments
• In the Netherlands, the Bank transfer system is the most preferred online payment method

Considering these stats, Shopify Markets offers multiple payment methods.

It automatically adds the most preferred payment option in a country/region to your checkout. This allows your customers to get a pleasant store experience and pay irresistibly.

05. Automatic Collection of Duty And Import Taxes

Do you know the duties and taxes charged across different countries? 

Likewise, International buyers might be unclear about the taxes leveraged on checkout.

Shopify store owners must provide the information upfront to the buyers to avoid any delivery problems or customers paying additional charges while receiving the goods.

Shopify Markets simplifies the process by compiling the duties and import taxes in advance and automatically providing the information at checkout. 

Undoubtedly, duties and taxes are a significant part of your international business strategy. You can’t just ignore it.

III. Getting Started with Shopify Markets

Shopify Markets powerful features have made cross-border selling as easy as clicking a button. But, the features slightly differ for merchants on Shopify and Shopify Plus.

Common Features Made for Shopify & Shopify Plus Merchants

• Manage global market from one store
• Sell in 133 currencies
• Provide local payment methods
• Sell in up to 20 languages
• Set up custom domains for local SEO
• Smart settings that optimize operations

Additional Features for Merchants on Shopify Plus 

• Collect duty and import taxes at checkout
• Set market-specific custom pricing
• Shopify payments customize catalogs and storefronts for each market
• Manage fulfillment locations per market

IV. Shopify Markets Dashboard

Shopify Markets ease the burden of doing business globally. It lets you manage your international store with a single dashboard. 

However, the dashboard comes along with multiple elements or features.

Let’s understand how these elements can help you customize your store and enhance your customer experience.

Step 1: Access Shopify Markets

Sign in to your store and click on Settings in the bottom left corner.

Then go to Markets to access your Shopify Markets dashboard.

Step 2. Create Your Markets

Here’s your Shopify market dashboard! You can start your international selling journey from here.

To begin with, click on Add Market on the top-right corner of the dashboard to add a specific country you want to sell your products (the image below is blurred for privacy purposes).

A drop-down appears with 130+ countries listed on it. You can either choose a bunch of countries or a specific country.

Step 3. Country-Specific Domains & Languages

Shopify Markets automatically add suffixes to your primary domain for every new marketplace you create.

You are free to customize your subdomain. However, we recommend keeping the default suffix provided by Shopify.

After configuring a region-specific domain, the next big challenge is to localize your store language.

Well! This is not a challenge anymore because Shopify does it automatically for you.

To set-up and manage language for your store, go to Domains and Languages and click on Shop languages as shown below.

Now, your Shopify store constitutes of 3 different language preferences:

• Default Language: The language your online visitors see if their preferred language isn’t available
• Translated Language: The additional language you want to add for your international customers
• Account Language: The language only store owner will see while managing Shopify markets

For your comfort we have selected the default store language as English. To add a new language, click on Add language in your Shopify Market dashboard as shown below.

You will see a drop-down with multiple languages. Choose the language into which you want to translate your store.

If, by any chance, your desired language is not published in the list. Visit Shopify app and install a compatible translation app for your store.

Shopify Markets offers third-party translation apps which are easily downloadable from its app store.

Step 4. Currency & Pricing

Shopify Markets allow you to easily manage your currency and pricing with a few clicks.

It offers the following:

1. Currency Conversions: Select your preferred currency from over 130 region-specific currencies
2. Automatic Conversion Rates: Get a real-time valuation of your native currency compared to your preferred currency in the global market
3. Price Rounding: Shopify Markets automatically round off your storefront prices to avoid unattractive pricing patterns such as decimals 

Shopify markets offer a complete pricing solution for your online store. You can adjust your currency & pricing for each market directly within the dashboard.

Step 5. Import Duties & Taxes

Shopify Markets automatically collects duties and taxes at checkout. 

All you need to do is, Open Duties and Import Taxes section in the dashboard > Enable the feature > Select specific countries where you want to collect duties.

That’s it! Shopify will automatically add the duties and taxes levied by your target market during checkout.

Step 6. Delivery & Shipping

Shopify Markets allow you to manage and set up your shipping rates across different regions.

For this, click on Manage rates in the Delivery and shipping section, as shown below.

For example, a store may consider free shipping to local customers. But, for international orders they might include some overhead charges.

To customize your delivery charges, click on the Add rate button in the bottom left corner to manage your delivery fees for new markets.

Now, you can always set up your own rates or use an app for calculating rates.

You can also manage your shipping speed as per your business convenience and finally set a price for your product deliveries.

Moreover, you can also add conditions for shipping. 

To do so, click on Add Conditions and customize your shipping with essential delivery conditions - based on item weight or based on order price.

Shopify Markets make it a lot easier to sort out International shipping rates.

But, how are your customers going to pay you? Let’s see! 

Step 7. Payment Methods

Shopify Market dashboard automatically shows you the preferred payment methods in your selected region/country.

Note: The payment methods are region-specific. If you create a market in the United Kingdom. The payment methods will automatically sync with popular payment options in the UK.

Step 8. Global Inventory Function

Note: This feature is available as a beta version and is provided to selected merchants on request.

With Shopify Markets, stores can allocate their inventory to different locations.

The global inventory function will automatically show your customers the inventory available in their region.

Suppose you have fulfillment partners in the USA, Germany, and France with the following inventory levels and destinations.

If a customer from Italy visits your website, he will see the total units available as 200. While a shopper from France will see total units available as 600.

That’s because Shopify automatically adjusts your storefront inventory according to product availability with your fulfillment partner.

This helps you avoid situations where an order is placed but cannot be fulfilled.

You can always manage your inventory from your products dashboard.

V. Wrapping Up Shopify Markets

Shopify Markets offers solutions to the most significant pain points of merchants aspiring to leverage international commerce.

Its cross-border management tool is easy to set up and comes along with many handy features. So, if you’re willing to expand your Shopify store internationally, Shopify Markets is the easiest way to get started.

Shopify Markets allow you to optimize your store for a particular region with the help of data collected from millions of merchants. It provides you with actionable insights to boost your business performance and set achievable goals.

Moreover, you don’t need to do anything manually! 

Shopify smart settings automatically make changes and optimize your store as per regional demographics and insights.

So, when you get 90% of your store work done automatically, it’s time to focus on selling in International markets with Shopify.