Shopify Internationalization: Markets, Languages, Duties and SEO
How to take a Shopify store international: Shopify Markets, translations, currencies, taxes and duties, domains or subfolders, and hreflang.
by Alexander HerlingPublished 6 min read
You can switch a Shopify store to multiple languages and currencies in a few clicks. Whether it actually sells abroad depends on a lot of details: clear translations, prices that make sense locally, correct taxes, the right payment methods, and search engines that map every country version correctly. This article walks through the key decisions, with a focus on European merchants selling across borders and international merchants selling into Europe.
Shopify keeps evolving its features, and names and availability partly depend on your plan and country. Always check the details in the current Shopify Help Center.
Shopify Markets: the foundation
Shopify Markets lets you group countries or regions into markets and define per market:
- which languages are offered
- currency and rounding rules
- domain or subfolder
- pricing, either as a percentage adjustment or, depending on your plan, fixed prices per product
- which products are available
- shipping options and payment methods
Draw markets around real differences, not around the map. If Germany and Austria share prices, language and shipping, a single market may do. Switzerland, on the other hand, almost always needs its own market because of the franc, customs and Swiss VAT.
Domains and subfolders
| Option | Example | Fit |
|---|---|---|
| Subfolder | store.com/de-de | Default for most stores: one domain, simple management |
| Country domain | store.de, store.fr | Local brand, strong country signal, more effort |
| Subdomain | de.store.com | Rarely worthwhile; the downsides of both other options |
Shopify creates subfolders using a language-country pattern such as /de-de or /fr-ch. With one language per market, the language alone is often enough. Decide on the structure before launch if you can, because changing it later means redirects and a temporary loss of visibility.
Translations: more than product copy
There is a lot more to translate than meets the eye:
- Product titles, descriptions, variants and option names
- Collections, pages, blog posts, navigation
- SEO titles, meta descriptions, alt text and URL handles
- Metafields, such as technical specs or care instructions
- Theme strings, checkout and email notifications
- Legal texts such as terms, returns policy and privacy notice
- App content, such as reviews, filters or size charts
Shopify's own Translate & Adapt app manages translations directly in the admin and includes a limited amount of automatic translation. Third-party apps add glossaries, workflows or connections to translation services. What matters is that translations are stored in Shopify itself. Apps that swap text in the browser often serve search engines and AI crawlers only the original language.
Machine translation is a good starting point. For the home page, bestsellers and categories, a review by native speakers pays off, including the terms people actually search for in each market. Our article on multilingual websites covers the workflow.
Currencies and pricing
With Shopify Payments, customers can see and pay in their local currency. Shopify converts using current or manually set rates. Without Shopify Payments, selling in multiple currencies is limited.
Points to watch:
- Rounding: prices like €23.47 look unprofessional. Rounding rules produce prices such as €23.95.
- Fixed prices for key products and markets, so exchange rate movements do not change your prices daily
- Tax-inclusive prices: consumers in the EU and UK expect prices including VAT. Shopify can display prices with the local VAT rate per country.
- Unit prices and price display according to local rules, for example the unit pricing requirements in Germany
Taxes and duties
Within the EU there are no customs duties, but VAT applies. For B2C sales to consumers in other EU countries, the destination country's VAT rate generally applies once you exceed an EU-wide threshold of €10,000. You report it centrally through the One-Stop Shop (OSS). Merchants outside the EU selling low-value goods into the EU can use the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) for consignments up to €150. The UK has its own rules for low-value imports. Shopify can calculate tax rates; reporting and responsibility remain with you.
For shipments to non-EU countries such as Switzerland, the UK or the US, customs duties and import taxes come into play. Two models:
| Model | Meaning | Effect on customers |
|---|---|---|
| DDU / DAP | The recipient pays duties on delivery | Surprise costs, frequent refused deliveries |
| DDP | Duties are calculated and paid at checkout | Transparent total price, fewer returns |
Shopify can estimate and collect duties and import taxes at checkout. Availability depends on your plan, home country, payment provider and carrier. Maintain HS codes and country of origin for every product. There are also services that act as merchant of record towards the end customer and handle taxes, duties and compliance. Whether that pays off depends on volume and target markets. Please clarify tax questions with your tax adviser.
hreflang and SEO per market
Shopify generates hreflang annotations automatically for all published languages and for markets with their own domain or subfolder. That saves a lot of work but does not replace checking:
- Check the source to confirm that all language and country versions reference each other.
- Make sure every version has a self-referencing canonical.
- Do not add manual hreflang tags to your theme that clash with the automatic ones.
- Translate URL handles so addresses read naturally in the local language.
- Research keywords per market. Germans search for "Laufschuhe"; British shoppers often say "running trainers", Americans "running shoes".
Country and language selection without force
Visitors should always be able to pick their version themselves. A prompt such as "Looks like you're in Switzerland – switch to the Swiss store?" works better than a forced redirect. Location-based forced redirects annoy travellers and cross-border shoppers and can stop search engine crawlers from seeing every version. Shopify offers selectors in the theme and redirection settings in Markets. The former Geolocation app was retired in March 2025.
Payment methods and trust
Every country pays differently. iDEAL dominates in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, TWINT in Switzerland, and buy-now-pay-later providers such as Klarna are popular in many markets. Check which methods your target markets expect and enable them per market. Local phone numbers, in-country return addresses and reviews from customers in that market add further trust.
Your roadmap
Start with one market, not ten. Choose the country with the strongest demand you can already see in enquiries or traffic. Set up language, currency, taxes, shipping and payment completely, measure for three months, then roll the pattern out to further countries. We support planning and implementation as part of our e-commerce platform and multilingual websites services.
Frequently asked questions
Subfolders or a separate domain per country?
For most stores, subfolders such as /en-gb are the better choice: they consolidate one domain's authority and are easy to manage. Country domains mainly pay off when you want to present yourself as a local brand in that market.
Does Shopify add hreflang automatically?
Yes. For published languages and markets with their own subfolders or domains, Shopify generates hreflang annotations itself. Check the output anyway, especially if translation apps create their own URLs.
Do I need to handle VAT in every EU country?
If your B2C distance sales to other EU countries exceed €10,000 a year in total, the destination country's VAT generally applies. The One-Stop Shop (OSS) lets you report it centrally. Clarify the details with your tax adviser.