Shopify Markets: Manage B2B & International Stores in One Place

Shopify’s latest summer edition 2024 has introduced a fantastic new feature: Shopify Markets. This tool is designed to make your life easier by helping you manage and optimize your online store for different global markets or B2B commerce—all from one central place.

Whether you’re looking to display prices in local currencies, set up regional domains, or streamline international shipping, Shopify Markets has you covered. Let’s dive into the guide compiled by our Shopify Experts about how it can help your business thrive worldwide.

What is Shopify Markets?

Shopify Markets is a feature that allows merchants to manage multiple markets from a single Shopify store. It provides tools to customize the shopping experience for different regions, including local currencies, languages, and payment methods. It also helps you manage your B2B business. This centralized approach further simplifies the complexities of international e-commerce, making it easier to cater to a global audience.

Benefits of Using Shopify Markets

Using Shopify Markets offers several advantages:

• Centralized Management: Manage all your marketplace from one Shopify store, saving time and resources.
• Localized Shopping Experience: Customize your store to suit the preferences of different regions, improving customer satisfaction and conversion rates.
• Simplified Operations: Streamline operations with integrated tools for currency conversion, language translation, and international shipping.

Key Features of Shopify Markets

Localized Shopping Experience

Shopify Marketplace basically allows you to offer a localized shopping experience by displaying prices in local currencies and translating your store into multiple languages. This feature helps build trust & makes it easier for customers to navigate & make purchases. There are apps also assist in building Shopify B2B.

Currency Conversion

With automatic currency conversion, customers can view prices in their local currency, reducing confusion and increasing the likelihood of completing a purchase. This feature also helps avoid cart abandonment caused by unexpected currency conversion fees.

Regional Domains

Shopify Markets enables you to set up regional domains, such as “.co.uk for the UK or .fr for France”. This improves your store’s visibility in local search results and helps customers feel more confident shopping from a familiar domain.

Payment Methods

Different regions prefer different payment methods. Shopify Marketplace allows you to offer local payments, such as iDEAL in the Netherlands or Sofort in Germany, making it easier for customers to pay.

Duties and Taxes

Managing international duties and taxes can be challenging. Shopify Markets simplifies this by automatically calculating and displaying duties and taxes at checkout, ensuring transparency and avoiding unpleasant surprises for your customers.

How to Set Up Shopify Markets?

Setting up Shopify Marketplace is straightforward:

1. Enable Shopify Marketplace: From your Shopify admin, navigate to Markets and enable the feature.
2. Configure Markets: Add new markets and customize settings for each region, including currencies, languages, and payment methods.
3. Localize Your Store: Use Shopify’s translation and currency tools to localize your store content and prices.
4. Set Up Regional Domains: Create regional domains to improve local search visibility and build trust with customers.

Managing Multiple Markets

Once your markets are set up, managing them involves:

• Monitoring Performance: Use Shopify’s analytics tools to track the performance of each market and identify areas for improvement.
• Adjusting Strategies: Tailor your marketing and sales strategies based on the unique characteristics and preferences of each market.
• Updating Content: Regularly update your store’s content to reflect local trends, seasons, and events.

Best Practices for Shopify Markets

• Localized Marketing Strategies: Tailor your marketing campaigns to the cultural preferences and shopping behaviors of each market. This includes localized advertising & social media engagement.
• Regular Performance Analysis: Continuously monitor the performance of each market using Shopify’s analytics tools. Identify trends and areas for improvement to ensure each market is optimized for success.
• Customer Support: Offer customer support in local languages to enhance the shopping experience and build trust with your international customers.

SEO Considerations

Expanding into international markets requires careful attention to SEO. Here are some tips to optimize your store for global reach:

• Use Regional Domains: As mentioned, regional domains help improve local search rankings.
• Implement Hreflang Tags: These tags tell search engines which language and region-specific versions of your store to show to users.
• Optimize Content for Local Keywords: Research and use keywords that are relevant to each market to improve visibility.

Additional Features for Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus

For those on the Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus plans, additional features are available to further enhance your global selling capabilities:

• Estimated Duties and Taxes: To provide avoid unexpected costs for your customers, these plans allow you to estimate and collect duties and import taxes at checkout. This feature helps customers understand the full cost of their purchase upfront, reducing cart abandonment.
• Fulfillment Management: Managing fulfillment locations for each market can be complex, but with Shopify Markets on Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus plans, you can efficiently handle fulfillment for different regions. This ensures timely delivery and better inventory management.

Shopify Markets Pro

Shopify Markets Pro is an advanced solution aimed at helping larger businesses tackle the challenges of internationalization. This service simplifies the process of selling to over 150 markets and offers a suite of powerful tools to manage global operations efficiently. Shopify Markets Pro is powered and is in collaboration with Global-E. Some of the unique functionalities of Markets Pro are:

• Currency and Payments: Shopify Markets Pro allows your customers to explore and make purchases in their own currency, with guaranteed foreign exchange rates.
• Compliance Management: One of the most daunting aspects of international selling is managing compliance with various tax, duty, and local laws. Shopify Markets Pro takes this burden off your shoulders by handling these complexities for you.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: To provide the best possible shopping experience, Shopify Markets Pro offers top payment methods and ensures that tariffs and duties are collected upfront. This eliminates surprise charges at delivery, which can lead to customer dissatisfaction and returns.
• Global Operations Management: From your Shopify admin, you can access a range of integrated tools designed to simplify global operations. These tools include translations, domain management, consolidated reporting, and personalized recommendations.
• Shipping Solutions: Shopify Markets Pro offers reduced shipping rates through DHL Express, providing affordable and reliable shipping options for your international customers. You can also choose between native Shopify fulfillment or significant third-party logistical partners.

The most striking feature of Shopify Markets Pro is its ability to manage all these aspects from a single dashboard. This means you can specify the target markets you want to sell to, monitor your international sales performance, and create localized experiences by offering a variety of language options and converting product prices into local currencies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Shopify Markets is a powerful tool for merchants looking to expand their e-commerce business globally. By providing a localized shopping experience, simplifying currency conversion, and offering regional payment methods, Shopify Marketplace helps you reach new customers and grow your business. Whether you’re just starting your international journey or looking to optimize your existing operations, Shopify Marketplace offers the features and flexibility you need to succeed.

For more information on how to leverage Shopify Markets, consider consulting with hire professional Shopify developers to help you navigate the complexities of international e-commerce. Happy selling!