International expansion is becoming increasingly common for ecommerce brands, with 77% of businesses looking to expand into overseas markets in the next two years. For some brands, the next move may be new collections, but some businesses are brave enough to look beyond their own borders. There are multiple reasons a brand may look to expand internationally: access to new revenue, domestic market saturation, or the growing demand for cross-border shopping. With the right tools, 44% of businesses make their first international sale within six months of startup, and thankfully, Shopify has made selling overseas a lot simpler.
Over the past five years, Shopify has evolved to support international selling, introducing tools such as Shopify Markets and Shopify expansion stores. Both of these solutions have helped to remove the barriers of cross-border selling and empowered merchants to reach their full potential, but which one is the right fit for your business?
The truth is that there isn't a correct answer. The choice depends on your business's branding, reporting, and how fast you can move behind the scenes. This blog sets out the differences between Shopify Markets and Shopify expansion stores to help you evaluate which is the best fit for your brand. If you would like help weighing it up, our Shopify experts are on hand.
What Is Shopify Markets?
Shopify Markets is a Shopify feature that enables businesses to sell to multiple countries and manage international currencies, regions, languages, and pricing all from a single store. According to Shopify, there are different ways to structure your markets.
From country and regional markets to single-country, multi-country, and Sub-region. You can also create retail, B2B, channel, and combined markets depending on how and where you want to sell. It is important that when customers visit your store, they are matched with the correct market; this process is known as localisation.
Shopify states that localised experiences are a catalyst in improving customer satisfaction and conversion rates. So what can be localised per market?
What Can Be Localised per Market?
- Currency: Convert prices in each region's local currency using manual pricing or automatic conversion. Shopify states that 45% of customers say displaying prices in their local currency would encourage them to buy from a store overseas.
- Languages: Turn page information, product descriptions, policies, and other text on the site into local languages using Shopify Translate + Adapt or third-party integrations.
- Domains: Use specific URLs per region, such as subfolders or subdomains such as /en-gb for the UK.
- Payment methods: Set certain payment gateways or alternative payment methods per market.
- Duties and taxes: Be transparent with duties and taxes throughout the journey and collect these at the checkout stage.
Localisation goes beyond just currency and language. It also involves making sure the correct products are available to the right customers. This is where Shopify Catalogues become useful.
Shopify Catalogs let you control which products are available in each market and the price or currency you sell them in. By default, all markets deduct from the same inventory levels tracked across your business's Shopify Locations. A product brought in one region subtracts stock from the rest. This benefits your business because all stock can be managed in one unified dashboard, eliminating the need for stock management per region.
Options for Cross-Border Selling
Managed Markets offer innovative features that help you take your business global. These tools are powered by Global-e - a cross-border ecommerce sales platform. When you choose to utilise managed markets, Global-e becomes the merchant of record. Ultimately, this means that Global-e is responsible for remitting your taxes, sorting shipping and fulfilment, and even arranging local payment methods, all with a fee, of course! This benefits your business because you can start selling across borders at a much quicker rate without the complexities.
Who Is Shopify Markets the Right Fit For?
Shopify Markets is typically best suited to:
- Businesses that are already witnessing organic sales traffic overseas.
- Businesses who are looking to expand into one specific country. A Single-country Market type means a tailored market can be created for that region without the hassle of opening a new store.
- Brands who intend to sell a similar product range across other markets, with simplified stock and fulfilment. If there are hundreds of SKUs, then Shopify Markets may not be your best choice.
What Are Shopify Expansion Stores?
Shopify’s Expansion Stores are separate storefronts that exist under the same business and contract, typically on your Shopify Plus plan. This means each store has its own separate settings, but is managed under the same Shopify subscription. But what does this mean?
What Can Be Made Unique on Shopify Expansion Stores?
- Theme: Each storefront can be designed to have its own unique layout and look.
- Catalogue: You can select which products are listed or not listed for each store
- Pricing: Can be localised per region as well as tax and import duties.
- Inventory: Inventory and stock are managed centrally as each store has its own stock count. To synchronise stock, a third-party app must be introduced.
- Apps: Are set up, managed, and billed on a per-store basis.
- Payments & Checkout: Each store has its own payment platforms and methods.
- Customer data: Every store will have its own customer base, meaning account information and purchase history is stored separately.
Within a Shopify Plus plan, businesses are allowed to create 1 main store and 9 expansion stores. According to Shopify, the most common types of store expansions are International stores, with the same brand/products but localised to that region, or B2B wholesale stores where your audience is a whole organisation rather than a singular customer.
Who Are Expansion Stores the Right Fit For?
Expansion stores might be right for your business if…
- Alongside your main site, you manage a wholesale or B2B store.
- The shared theme used on markets becomes difficult to manage because you have a different design vision for your site per region/audience.
- You have brands with significantly different pricing strategies or product catalogues per country.
- You have different regional warehouses and regional teams to manage each store,
Shopify Markets vs Expansion Stores: How Do They Compare?
Common Mistakes When Expanding Internationally on Shopify
Whilst Shopify can make international expansion seem relatively straightforward, many brands can still underestimate the complexities behind it. Let's explore some misconceptions so you can avoid this happening to your business.
- “Translate, and we are done”: It is imperative that, in addition to language translation, you adapt to a country's tone, style, consumer needs, and cultural context.
- Ignoring SEO and domains: Each separate domain will have its own backlink profile, and authority must be built for each one.
- Ignoring mobile apps: Mobile apps have a conversion rate of 3.5% compared to 2% on mobile web. Your app should also support local markets.
- Launching an expansion team without a team to run it: If existing teams try to juggle both the original store and new stores, both the original market and new market will suffer.
How to Decide: A Checklist for Ecommerce Brands
International expansion can be overwhelming, and choosing the right Shopify tool to help you navigate cross-border selling is important. Use this checklist to assess your current situation and plans for international growth to help you decide.
Shopify Markets
- Do you have a specific single country you wish to target?
- Do you wish to manage international markets from one centralised location?
- Would you like international markets to have a shared stock pool?
- Do you want shared custom data and account information across all markets?
- Would you like less repeated admin and store maintenance?
- Do you intend to keep your product catalogues and pricing relatively consistent across different markets?
- Do you manage all orders overseas through one fulfilment setup?
- Do you want to maintain good authority and a strong back-link profile?
If your answer was yes to most of these questions, Shopify Markets is probably the best move for your business.
Shopify Expansion Stores
- Do you wish to have a different theme design and layout for each storefront?
- Do you want custom pricing and different product offerings in each store?
- Do you have the correct resources to complete ongoing maintenance and admin, e.g., a team for each region?
- Do you have complex warehouse and fulfilment needs?
- Do you require different stock pools per region?
- Do you require different apps or third-party integrations across other regions?
- Do different regions require separate customer data with custom CRM and marketing strategies?
If most of these points correlate with your business, then Shopify Expansion stores is likely the perfect fit.
How to Weigh Short-Term Speed Against Long-Term Flexibility?
Whilst Shopify Markets may seem like the most straightforward and cost-effective choice, with less strain on business resources, it is important to consider future growth. Shopify Markets may be a good starting point, but consider which one will help support you as you choose to expand even further.
What Are the Next Steps for International Ecommerce?
According to Shopify, here are vital steps in formulating your international expansion plan
- Conduct Market Research: Expanding into a new region will only work if the customers are willing to buy your products.
- Localise Storefront: Customers want to buy from sites that display their currency, language, and align with their cultural views.
- Offer Relevant Payment Methods: Ensure you are offering payment platforms that are recognised and trusted by that region.
- Ensure You Are Complying With Local Legal Requirements: Be transparent with duties and taxes and collect these at the checkout.
- Manage Logistics and Fulfilment: Sort shipping providers, delivery dates and costs and even the returns policies for cross-border selling.
Your Key Takeaways
- International expansion is a great opportunity to tap into new markets, unlock new revenue streams and reduce your reliance on a single market.
- Shopify Markets is a great tool for businesses who wish to manage international sales from a centralised dashboard, reduce complexity and duplicated admin.
- Expansion stores are ideal for those who require different product catalogues, independent stock/inventory and have the extra resources needed for international operations.
Although there are many rewards that come with selling to international markets, it can be overwhelming and difficult to manage. This is where Cake can help. As an award-winning Shopify Plus agency we specialise in helping brands grow on Shopify no matter the region.
Contact our Shopify Agency team to see how we can help your business expand into new markets
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Shopify Markets?
Shopify Markets is a Shopify feature that allows businesses to sell to multiple different markets from one single store. You can tailor customer experiences through language, currency and pricing.
What Is a Shopify Expansion Store?
Shopify Expansion Stores are other stores that fall under a singular Shopify business and contract. You can create different stores with different product catalogues, themes and other configurations.
Do I Need Shopify Plus to Use Expansion Stores?
A Shopify Plus plan must be active to use expansion stores. You have access to one main store and 9 expansion stores once this is acquired.
Take Your Shopify Store Global With an Ecommerce Agency Built by Retailers
Looking for a digital marketing agency ecommerce brands trust to support international growth? Cake is an ecommerce agency UK retailers choose for Shopify development, marketing and design, and an agency ecommerce teams can rely on as they enter new markets. Our ecommerce marketing agency team works as an ecommerce advertising agency and ecommerce digital marketing agency in one, planning paid and organic activity around each new market. If you are comparing the best ecommerce marketing agency options for your brand, take a look at our case studies.
