How to sell internationally on Shopify

To sell internationally on Shopify, create a market for the countries you want, activate it, then decide five things for it: language, currency, shipping, duties and tax. New markets inherit your store’s default settings, so you can start with one country and change only what its customers need.

What is a Shopify market?

A market is a group of customers, usually a country or a set of countries, with its own settings. Shopify’s Markets overview splits it in two: conditions define who the market applies to, and customizations define what those customers see. One point matters more than the rest: a country must be in an active market before you can sell there. Customers in inactive markets cannot place orders, even if a shipping rate covers their country.

Where should you start?

Start with the country where you already have demand and can deliver reliably. Look at where your visitors and past inquiries come from, then get a real shipping quote before you promise anything. Each new market adds work: translations to review, rates to maintain, rules to follow. One market that runs well teaches you more than ten that are half configured.

The five decisions for each market

Language and domain

If customers in the market do not read your default language, follow our guide to translating a Shopify store. Then choose the address. Shopify calls subfolders such as yourstore.com/fr/ the simplest option and suitable for most stores, because they share the authority of your main domain. Subdomains need DNS setup, and top-level domains such as yourstore.fr must be registered per country.

Currency and payment

Local prices can make a store feel local, but charging in a local currency needs Shopify Payments or Adyen. We explain the fees and the rounding in how to handle currencies on a Shopify store. Markets can also show local payment methods: Shopify’s example is Bancontact and iDEAL | Wero for a market containing Belgium and the Netherlands.

Shipping

Under Settings > Shipping and delivery, open a shipping profile and add a zone for the new country with its rates. A country can belong to only one zone in a profile. Say clearly what customers should expect: our guide to the shipping page covers what to publish.

Duties and tax

Every order that crosses a customs border may owe duties. In each market’s settings, you can add duties and import taxes to the total at checkout, or absorb them if your prices already cover them. Shopify’s calculations are estimates. They are based on each product’s Harmonized System (HS) code and country of origin, so fill in those fields. Collecting duties at checkout also has conditions: HS codes on your products, and a carrier that supports delivered duty paid labels if you use shipping labels.

The same settings control tax display. Dynamic tax display shows tax-inclusive prices in regions like the EU and tax-exclusive prices in regions like the US. Before collecting tax, you must enter a tax registration for that region. Tax rules differ by country and change often, so treat this as general information as of November 2026 and ask a tax professional what applies to your business. For one common destination, see our checklist on selling in Europe from a Shopify store.

How do you check it works?

1. Preview the store as a customer from that market, using your country selector.
2. Check the language, the currency and the price on a product page.
3. Go through checkout up to payment and read the shipping rate and any duties or tax lines.
4. Read the order confirmation email in that language.
5. Ship one order yourself, if you can, before you spend money on advertising in that country.

Most of this happens in your Shopify settings, whichever theme you use. What Forgefont handles is the store itself: it builds your pages from your products and photos, in the language you choose, and copies your prices exactly. If you plan to sell abroad, configure your store with the languages you need.