Expanding a Shopify store internationally is not just a settings toggle. Customers expect a familiar, local experience from the first search result to the last click in checkout. With Shopify Markets, you can centralize domains, languages, currencies, catalogs, and tax rules into a single operational playbook that converts abroad as well as at home.
What Shopify Markets actually gives you
Markets let you define customer sets and tailor the experience by region. You can create parent markets and submarkets, inherit settings, and manage catalogs, pricing, domains, and languages in one place. The updated model also introduces catalog controls and market-specific theme customizations for eligible plans. The official Markets overview explains that you can customize currencies, domains and languages, product catalogs, and duties or taxes per market, while submarkets inherit parent settings for faster rollout.
If you want Shopify to manage cross-border complexity end to end, the Managed Markets program handles local compliance, duties and taxes, and local payment methods, and even guarantees duty and tax amounts at checkout.
International domains and hreflang that search engines love
Choosing between subfolders, subdomains, or country domains affects both setup and SEO. Shopify recommends subfolders for most first-time international setups because they are easier and benefit from primary domain authority. The International domains guide clarifies that hreflang tags and meta tags are automatically created for every international domain or subfolder, and published languages are included in your sitemaps so search engines detect multilingual content.
You still need correct hreflang strategy. Google advises using fully qualified URLs and reciprocal linking, and recommends an x-default for unmatched languages in its Localized versions guidelines. For theme-level control, Shopify explains how to add tags in templates in its hreflang guide, although Shopify also injects hreflang via the header when Markets and languages are configured.
Localization that reads like it was written locally
Real localization goes beyond machine translation. Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app lets you mix automatic and manual translations, localize media, and translate URL handles. You can also create market-specific copy for subtle cultural differences, like “jumpers” for UK menus instead of “sweaters.” For navigation and SEO safety, Shopify’s multiple currencies and languages tutorial recommends locale-aware URLs and avoiding hardcoded paths, since Markets may generate dynamic subfolders like /en-ca.
If you are building a new store and want a flexible, modular system with editorial control, the BoomSprint team designs multilingual Shopify sites with content models that marketing teams can update without developers. See how we combine strategy, UX, and high-end design in our services and explore ecommerce case studies in our work.
Multi-currency UX that converts
Currency and payment familiarity are decisive for cross-border conversion. Research from PYMNTS reports that nearly all cross-border shoppers, 99 percent, expect to pay with their preferred local methods, and 94 percent expect to pay in local currency, signaling that localization at checkout is non negotiable, as summarized in this PYMNTS analysis.
Shopify covers both layers. To sell in multiple currencies you need Shopify Payments, then you can display local prices and add selectors. The multi-currency help doc outlines the requirement, while the theme tutorial shows how to implement accessible country and language selectors. For structured data, Shopify advises outputting priceCurrency from the cart currency so search engines see localized pricing in rich results.
Taxes should also match regional expectations. The dynamic tax-inclusive pricing guide explains how Shopify can automatically include VAT in display prices for countries where customers expect tax-included pricing, and exclude it where they expect tax added at checkout.
If you want even deeper localization of payments, Shopify’s Managed Markets overview lists enabled local methods like Klarna, iDEAL, Bancontact, and more, mapped to their regions and currencies, alongside Shop Pay support.
Pricing strategy, rounding, and clean presentation
Your pricing engine should combine fixed prices where needed with sensible adjustments elsewhere. Shopify lets you set market-level price adjustments that apply a percentage increase or decrease across products, as described in the price adjustments guide. For key SKUs or strategic markets, you can set fixed product prices by country, upload via CSV, and preview prices per market.
Rounding rules keep prices tidy. Shopify’s catalogs documentation explains that adjusted prices combine exchange rates and rounding, for example ending prices with .99 for psychological consistency, as shown in the catalogs for different markets guide. Together, fixed prices, percentage adjustments, and rounding give you control to hit desired margins and on-brand price endings.
Operations playbook for going global
Content and SEO. Build a translation workflow with Translate & Adapt, set locale-aware navigation, and verify hreflang coverage, including x-default for selectors per Google’s guidance. For writing that ranks, you can borrow techniques from our guide on how to write content that ranks on Google.
Catalogs and governance. Use catalogs to include or exclude products by market and to enforce price policies, per Shopify’s Markets overview. For teams, document who owns translations, pricing, and approvals.
Taxes and duties. Activate dynamic tax display where appropriate and decide whether to collect duties at checkout. Managed Markets can simplify duties, HS codes, and compliance according to the Managed Markets overview.
QA and analytics. Test locale-aware URLs, selectors, cart and checkout currencies, and local payment methods on real devices and IPs. Segment analytics by market to watch bounce, PDP to cart, and checkout step drop-off after changes.
BoomSprint’s accelerated 5-step model blends discovery, interactive prototyping, and modular Shopify development so your team can edit content easily and scale into new markets with confidence. Explore our approach on the About and Pricing pages, then review recent ecommerce work like SPACE or NOVA. If you are standing up a new store, start a free trial through Shopify, and if you want a premium, conversion-led build that is global-ready from day one, talk to us at BoomSprint.
