How to sell online internationally with Shopify

Key takeaways

• Shopify provides built-in tools for international selling, including Shopify Markets, multi-currency pricing, translation, local payment methods, and duty collection at checkout.

• Choosing between a single-store setup (Shopify Markets) and a multi-store setup (Shopify Plus) is one of the first architectural decisions you'll need to make.

• Airwallex's Shopify integration lets you collect payments in local currencies, avoid forced FX conversions, and manage global finances from one account.

Selling internationally on Shopify means setting up your store to handle multiple currencies, languages, payment methods, and shipping destinations, all whilst keeping your margins intact. It isn't just a case of flipping a switch. You'll need to think through store architecture, pricing strategy, tax compliance, and how you'll collect and move money across borders.

This guide covers Shopify's international features, how to choose between a single-store and multi-store setup, what it'll cost you, how to set up your finances to avoid unnecessary FX fees, how to pick your first market, and how to fulfil orders abroad.

Why sell internationally with Shopify?

Shopify gives merchants a solid set of features if they want to reach customers beyond their home market.¹ Before you get into costs and setup, it helps to know what you get out of the box and which plan gives you which capabilities.²

Note: Not all Shopify plans offer the same features. Be sure to compare their various plans before committing.

Multi-currency pricing and local payment methods

Showing prices in your customers' local currency can increase conversion rates by up to 40%.³ That's a big lift, and it makes sense. Nobody wants to do mental maths at checkout to work out what they're paying.

Shopify lets you set prices in multiple currencies and offer local payment methods, Klarna in Europe, Alipay in China, iDEAL in the Netherlands. When customers see familiar prices and payment options, they're much more likely to finish the purchase.

Translation and international domains

Language matters. Research shows that 40% of global consumers won't buy products marketed in a foreign language.⁴ If your product descriptions, checkout flow, and support pages aren't in your customers' native language, you're leaving money on the table.

Shopify supports automatic and manual translation, and you can set up international domains, like yourstore.fr or yourstore.de, to target specific markets. These domains also help with SEO, because search engines can serve the right version of your site to visitors based on their location.

Duties, taxes, and checkout transparency

Unexpected fees at delivery are one of the quickest ways to lose a customer, or worse, trigger a chargeback. When someone sees a total at checkout, they expect that to be what they'll pay. If a customs bill turns up weeks later, that trust disappears.

Shopify lets you collect duty and import taxes directly at checkout on all plans (a 0.5% transaction fee applies per order), so customers know exactly what they're paying upfront. That helps you stay compliant with local regulations and cuts the friction that hurts international conversions. For more on navigating compliance, see our guide on legal considerations before expanding overseas.

Market management and pricing controls

Running different pricing strategies across markets matters when you're dealing with different duties, taxes, and shipping costs. What works in the UK might eat into your profit margins in Germany.

Shopify Markets lets you manage all your international settings from one place, currencies, languages, domains, and pricing adjustments.⁵ You can set percentage-based price increases for specific markets or develop different pricing strategies entirely. Want all your UK prices to end in £0.99 and your EUR prices to end in €0.90? You can do that too.

Shopify Markets vs. multi-store: Choosing your store architecture

Before you start setting up currencies and payment methods, you need to make a basic decision: will you run one store that serves multiple markets, or separate stores for each region? That choice affects which Shopify plan you need, how much day-to-day complexity you'll take on, and how easily you can scale.

Single store with Shopify Markets

For most merchants, a single store with Shopify Markets is the right choice.¹ Think of it like one shop with different storefronts for each country. The inventory and backend are shared, but each customer sees prices, language, and payment methods that fit their location.

Shopify Markets handles automatic currency conversion, language translation, market-specific domains, and centralised management. You don't need to maintain separate product catalogues or reconcile inventory across multiple stores. It's available on all Shopify plans,² though higher tiers unlock more advanced features like custom pricing controls. Duty collection at checkout is available on all plans.

Multiple stores with Shopify Plus

A multi-store setup makes sense in some cases: if you sell completely different product ranges in different regions, need separate legal entities for regulatory reasons, or want full control over branding and pricing in each market. Shopify Plus supports this, but it comes with higher costs and more operational overhead.

For most growing businesses, Shopify Markets gives you what you need without the extra complexity of managing multiple stores.

How much does it cost to sell internationally with Shopify?

Shopify charges a monthly subscription fee plus transaction fees on each sale. The exact costs depend on which plan you choose⁷, and for international sellers, those differences matter more than you might expect.

Shopify plan comparison for international sellers

Here's how the main plans compare for merchants selling across borders:

All plans support international market management, currency conversion, translation, local payment methods, and duty collection at checkout. If you want to set market-specific prices, you'll need Advanced or Plus.

The credit card rates also fall as you move up tiers, which can add up quickly at higher volumes. And whilst the currency conversion fee stays at 1.5% across all plans, there are ways to avoid it entirely. That brings us to the next section.

Currency conversion fees explained

Shopify's currency conversion fee applies whenever you accept payment in a currency that's different from your payout currency.⁹ Here's how Shopify explains it:

At 1.5% on every international transaction, this fee can quietly eat into your margins, which is a real foreign exchange risk if you're selling across multiple markets. The good news is that you can avoid it by collecting revenue in the same currency you'll use it in. For more on cutting these costs, see our guide on how to avoid paying foreign transaction fees.

How to set up your finances for international Shopify selling

Selling internationally isn't just about setting up your storefront. You also need to set up the financial infrastructure to collect, hold, convert, and pay out funds without losing money at each step. This is where a lot of merchants give away margin.

Collect payments without forced currency conversions

The simplest way to avoid Shopify's 1.5% conversion fee is to collect payments in the same currency you'll eventually use them in. Think of it like having a local till in every country you sell in, without having to open an account with a bank in each one.

Here's what that looks like. Say you're a UK business selling to customers in France. When a French customer pays €100, that payment will often be auto-converted to GBP before it reaches your account, and you lose 1.5% in the process. But if you have a euro-denominated account, you can receive those euros directly and hold them until you need them.

With Airwallex Global Accounts, you can open accounts in 20+ currencies and connect them to your Shopify store via our Shopify integration.¹⁴ That lets you collect customer payments directly into the right currency account, with no forced conversions and no unnecessary fees.

Pay suppliers and operational costs in local currencies

Collecting in local currencies is only half the picture. If you're paying overseas suppliers, warehouses, or VAT bills, you're probably converting funds again and losing another 2–3% to your bank in cross-border fees each time.

Take a UK merchant paying a Chinese supplier. A traditional SWIFT wire means converting GBP to CNY through your bank, paying wire fees, and then waiting days for the payment to arrive. With Airwallex Transfers, you can pay via local payment rails in 150+ countries, which is faster, cheaper, and avoids the SWIFT overhead. For a deeper dive, see our guide to paying overseas suppliers.

If you're holding euros from French sales, you can pay a German supplier directly in euros without converting back to GBP first. The currency you collect becomes the currency you spend.

Manage international ad spend without FX surcharges

Running Meta or Google ads in foreign markets? Your card issuer is probably charging you 2–3% on every transaction in a foreign currency. That adds up quickly when you're spending thousands on customer acquisition.

Airwallex Corporate Cards let you issue cards in multiple currencies, so you can pay for EUR ad spend from your euro balance or USD software subscriptions from your dollar balance, with no conversion fees and no surprises on your statement.

How Airwallex compares on FX costs

When you do need to convert currencies, the rate matters. Banks usually charge 2–3% above the interbank exchange rate, which is the rate banks use when trading with each other. Shopify Payments charges 1.5% on conversions.

Airwallex charges 0.5–1% above the interbank rate. On £100,000 in annual revenue from international sales, that difference could save you £1,000–2,000 per year in FX costs alone.

You can compare Airwallex against other business accounts here to see how the numbers stack up for your situation.

How to choose your first international market

Once you've decided to sell internationally, the next question is where. Trying to launch everywhere at once is a good way to stretch your resources and get average results. It's better to start with one or two markets where you have the strongest chance of success.

Use Shopify analytics to spot demand

Your existing data is the best place to start. Go to Shopify's analytics section and check your "sessions by location" report. If you're already seeing visitors, or even sales, from a specific country, that's a strong sign that demand is already there.

Don't have international visitors yet? That doesn't mean international selling won't work. It just means you'll need to do more research upfront to find promising markets.

Criteria for picking a market

When you're weighing up potential markets, look for countries that:

• Share the same language as you (or where you can easily provide translation)

• Are geographically close, reducing shipping costs and times

• Have cultural similarities that make your products relevant

• Show similar purchasing habits and price expectations

You'll also want to think about regulatory requirements, because some markets have specific compliance obligations for eCommerce sellers. And don't forget local shopping calendars. Black Friday dominates in the West, but Singles' Day drives massive sales across Asia. Our global eCommerce calendar can help you plan around peak periods in different markets.

Shopify Markets makes it fairly low-risk to test a new market. You can enable a country, see how it performs, and then scale up or pull back based on real data. For a full overview of international expansion, see our international eCommerce guide.

How to fulfil orders internationally

Setting up your storefront is one part of the job. Getting products to international customers is another. Before you start taking orders, make sure you have a plan for importing, storing, and shipping inventory.

Importing and storing inventory

Shipping individual products from your home warehouse to international customers can work at low volumes, but it gets expensive and slow pretty quickly as you scale. If you're seeing consistent demand from a market, it often makes more sense to import inventory in bulk and store it locally.

You'll need to sort out customs paperwork to get products into the country, and find a reliable warehouse or fulfilment partner. Shopify's Markets feature lets you display only the inventory you can ship to each customer's location⁶, so a French customer sees what's available from your EU warehouse, not stock sitting in the US.

For more on managing stock across locations, see our guide on inventory management. And Shopify offers detailed guidance on market-specific fulfilment controls.¹²

Shipping to international customers

Shopify Shipping¹³ lets you buy international shipping labels directly from your account and automatically generates the correct customs forms. Shopify also works with local carriers, DPD and Evri in the UK, for example, to handle last-mile delivery.

Keep in mind that your fulfilment costs are part of your wider financial picture. If you're paying overseas warehouses or carriers, the same principles from the financial setup section apply: paying in local currencies via local rails can save you significant fees compared to international wire transfers.

Sell globally with Shopify and Airwallex

Shopify gives you the storefront tools to reach international customers. Airwallex gives you the financial infrastructure to make money doing it. Together, they let you:

• Collect payments in 20+ currencies without forced conversions

• Pay suppliers, warehouses, and ad platforms in local currencies

• Issue multi-currency cards for international expenses

• Convert funds at rates 50–70% lower than traditional banks

Sign up for an Airwallex account to start streamlining your global finances and protecting your margins as you scale internationally.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell internationally with any Shopify plan?

Yes, all Shopify plans support international selling with features like currency conversion, translation, local payment methods, and duty collection at checkout. Higher-tier plans (Advanced and Plus) give you extras like market-specific pricing controls.

Should I use one Shopify store or multiple stores for international selling?

For most merchants, a single store with Shopify Markets is the simplest and most cost-effective option. You'd only need multiple stores (via Shopify Plus) if you have very different product ranges, pricing structures, or regulatory requirements across markets.

How do I avoid currency conversion fees on Shopify?

Connect a multi-currency account (like Airwallex Global Accounts) to your Shopify store so you can receive payouts in the same currency your customers pay in. That avoids Shopify's automatic conversion to your home currency and the 1.5% fee that comes with it.

Which countries can I sell to on Shopify?

Shopify lets you sell to customers in virtually any country. With Shopify Markets, you can target specific countries or group regions together. Your ability to accept payments depends on your payment provider and the local payment methods you offer.

How do I choose my first international market on Shopify?

Start by checking your Shopify analytics for "sessions by location" to see where you already have international visitors. Then assess markets based on language overlap, geographic proximity, cultural similarities, and purchasing habits.

Sources and references

1. https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/how-to-sell-internationally-online

2. https://www.shopify.co.uk/pricing

3. https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/how-to-sell-internationally-online#1

4. https://alexika.com/blog/2020/08/17/why-translation-matters-40-will-not-buy-in-other-languages

5. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/markets/pricing

6. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/markets/inventory_and_fulfillment

7. https://www.shopify.com/pricing

8. https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing

9. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/multi-currency/conversion-fees

10. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/multi-currency/international-pricing#set-price-margins-for-a-country-or-region

11. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/multi-currency/conversions#custom-rounding-rules

12. https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/international-warehouses-ecommerce-guide

13. https://www.shopify.co.uk/shipping

14. https://apps.shopify.com/airwallex-payments-app

This article was written in June 2026 and provides general information only. It doesn't take into account your specific business circumstances. Whilst we've done our best to ensure accuracy, we recommend checking current Shopify pricing and features directly on their website before making decisions.