Shopify Markets: How to Launch Your Store in a New Country

November 2, 2026 by Ashwathy M

You're probably already getting visitors from other countries. Some of them add to cart, see a store in a language they don't read well with prices they have to convert, and leave.

Shopify Markets lets you turn those visitors into customers. A market is a country, or a group of countries, that gets its own language, currency, and prices. This playbook walks through launching one new market from start to finish, ending with your first local promotion.

Key takeaways

• Start with one country where you already have visitors, rather than opening everywhere at once.

• Markets handles prices and currency, but it doesn't translate your store. That's a separate step.

Launch with a local offer timed to a shopping day that country actually celebrates.

Step 1: Pick your first country

Don't guess. Your analytics already show where interest is coming from.

1. In Shopify admin, open Analytics and look at sessions and orders by country.
2. Find the countries outside your home market with the most visitors and add-to-carts.
3. Check you can ship there at a reasonable cost and speed.

Pick one to start. Launching one market properly beats launching five that are half finished.

Good first markets usually share something with your current one. A UK store often starts with Ireland, a US store with Canada, and a German store with Austria and Switzerland. Neighbouring countries keep shipping simple, and a shared language means less to translate.

Step 2: Set up the market

1. In Shopify admin, open Markets (in some stores it's under Settings → Markets).
2. Click Add market and choose the country or region.
3. Set the currency. Shoppers there will see prices in it.
4. Review the prices. You can let Shopify convert them automatically, round them, or set your own prices for best sellers.
5. Choose how shoppers reach the market: a separate domain, or a subfolder like yourstore.com/fr. Subfolders are the easiest place to start.

If you'd rather not handle local taxes and duties yourself, Shopify also offers Managed Markets, which handles them for a fee. Lokalize's guide to Managed Markets explains when it's worth it.

Step 3: Translate your store

This is the step most merchants skip, and the one shoppers notice first. Setting up a market doesn't translate anything. Until you add translations, shoppers see your store in your default language.
Add the language

1. In Shopify admin, go to Settings → Languages and add the language.
2. Assign it to your new market.
3. Leave it unpublished until your translations are ready.

Translate the content. You have two main options:

• Shopify's free Translate & Adapt app translates your store, with automatic AI translation for up to two languages. It's a good place to start.
• A translation app like Lokalize translates your whole store into 130+ languages in one click, then keeps new products and pages translated automatically. Its free plan includes two AI languages and 10,000 translated words, which is enough to launch a first market.

Whichever you use, check these before you publish:

• Top pages. Read your home page, best sellers, and shipping page yourself, or ask a native speaker to.
• Brand and product names. Make sure the translation didn't rename them. A glossary that marks names as "never translate" prevents this.
• Search results. Translate your page titles and descriptions too, so you show up when people search in their own language.
• Offer text. Badges, cart messages, and upsell offers need translating too. Some apps keep their own text separately, so check them one by one.

Once everything is translated, publish the language. Shopify then shows your checkout and order emails in that language automatically.

Step 4: Add a language and currency switcher

Shopify can send shoppers to the right language automatically, but this is off by default. Turn it on under Online Store → Preferences → Automatic redirection, and add a language selector to your theme's header or footer.

A switcher that detects the shopper's country shows them the right language and currency straight away, so they never land on the wrong version of your store. Lokalize includes one with live exchange rates and price rounding.

Step 5: Launch with a local offer

A new market needs a reason to buy now. The best one is an offer tied to a shopping day that country already celebrates. Searches for these days are huge, which tells you shoppers are ready to buy:

Then make the offer feel local:

• Write it in their language. The offer badge, cart message, and email should all be translated, not just the product page.
• Use local amounts. A free-shipping goal of €50 looks like an offer. A converted €47.32 looks like a mistake.
• Keep it to that market. A Boxing Day offer for Canada doesn't need to run in the US.

Step 6: Test like a local shopper

Before you announce anything, shop your own store as someone in that country would:

1. Use a VPN set to the country, or switch market with your store's selector.
2. Check the home page and a product page are in the right language and currency.
3. Add items to your cart and check the offer and free-shipping goal.
4. Go through checkout and check the language and total.
5. Place a test order and read the confirmation email.
   

Then give it a few weeks. Watch orders and conversion rate for the new market in your analytics. If it's working, use the same playbook for your next country.

Frequently Asked Questions