Selling Internationally on Shopify: Currencies, Duties and Shipping Basics

Opening your store to another country sounds like a simple expansion. In practice, every new market brings its own currency, tax rules, delivery expectations and payment habits. Stores that expand well do it deliberately, one market at a time, and measure each before adding the next.

Start with one market and prove the margin

Choose the market that already sends you orders, then work out what those orders really earn after shipping, duties and returns. A market that looks large on traffic can lose money once delivery costs are counted. Only add a second country once the first one covers its costs.

The four decisions every market needs

Use Shopify Markets to organise it

Shopify's Markets documentation explains how to group countries, set local prices and manage domains or subfolders per market. Setting this up properly from the start is far easier than retrofitting it after you have orders in several currencies.

Be clear about delivery and returns

International shoppers are more sensitive to delivery time and return costs than local ones. State the expected delivery window for each country, say who pays duties, and explain how returns work across borders. Unclear answers are one of the most common reasons an international order is abandoned at the last step.

• Show shipping costs and delivery estimates before the final step, per country.
• Use local date and number formats so prices and dates read naturally.
• Keep customer service hours and channels clear for each region you serve.
• Review the performance of each market every quarter before expanding further.

When you are ready to reach shoppers in new countries through ads, the feed and product data need the same care covered in our guide to free Google Shopping listings.