How do you sell internationally with Shopify Markets?
With Shopify Markets you define a market for each target country or region inside one store, then give it its own language, domain or subfolder, prices, product range and shipping. For a Turkey-based store, the first thing to settle is payments, because selling in local currencies requires Shopify Payments, which is not offered in Turkey.
Thinking of Shopify Markets as a "launch abroad" button is misleading. It gives you the plumbing to serve different countries a different experience from one catalog and one admin. Which countries you sell to, at what price, with which payment methods and what delivery promise are still your decisions.
What is Shopify Markets and what can you customise?
Shopify's help center describes Markets as a way to define audiences by location, customer group, retail location or sales channel and tailor settings for each one. Per market you can customise:
| Setting | What it does | Note for a Turkey-based brand |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | Shows prices in the visitor's local currency | Requires Shopify Payments or Adyen |
| Prices | Percentage adjustments per market or per-product prices | Price adjustments are on all plans, independent of payments |
| Language | Separate language and translations per market | Manage with the Translate & Adapt app |
| Domain | Subfolder, subdomain or country domain | Hreflang tags are added automatically |
| Product range | Show or hide products by market | Separate out products with shipping or regulatory limits |
| Shipping | Shipping options per market | Spell out delivery times and the return address |
Why is payment the critical issue for Turkey-based Shopify stores?
Shopify's help page is clear: selling in local currencies is only supported by Adyen or Shopify Payments. Orders through other third-party gateways are processed in the store's default currency. Turkey is not on the list of countries where Shopify Payments is available.
In practice, a Shopify store run by a company registered in Turkey and using a local payment provider cannot show a German visitor a euro price and charge in euros. Payment is taken in the store's main currency. That can still work in some cases, but you should factor in the hit to conversion rate.
Brands usually take one of these routes:
- Set the main currency to USD or EUR: this can make sense if most sales are abroad and your payment provider supports it. Turkish customers then need a separate solution.
- Set up a company in a Shopify Payments country: this opens local currencies and wallets. It is a tax and legal decision to make with an accountant and a lawyer.
- Run a separate store per market: some brands run one Shopify store for Turkey and another for international sales. Operations get heavier, but payments and invoicing get simpler.
Shopify also offers Managed Markets, where a partner acts as merchant of record. According to the help page, it is currently only available to merchants in the continental United States and certain stores in Canada and the United Kingdom, so it is not an option for Turkey-based stores.
In what order should you set up Shopify Markets?
- Settle payments and company structure: decide which currency you will collect in and which payment provider you will use. Everything else depends on it.
- Prioritise markets: group countries that are similar in shipping, language and pricing instead of making each one its own market. Two or three markets are enough to start.
- Choose a domain structure: Shopify presents subfolders as the recommended starting point; they use your existing domain's authority and are simple to set up. Pick a country domain only if you have a distinct strategy for that market.
- Add languages and review translations: automatic translation is a fine start, but product titles, size charts and return policies need a human review.
- Set pricing: choose between percentage adjustments per market and fixed per-product prices. Decide whether shipping and any duties are built into the price or shown separately.
- Define shipping and returns: write delivery times, shipping fees and return addresses per market. Returns from abroad to Turkey are expensive, so design your policy with that in mind.
- Set up measurement: track conversions per market in GA4 and your ad platforms. Remember that Shopify reports are only available in the store currency.
Subfolder, subdomain or country domain?
Shopify's international domains page explains that subfolders (brand.com/de) use your primary domain and build on its existing search ranking. Subdomains (de.brand.com) may take longer to build authority. Country domains (brand.de) are bought separately for each market and build authority from scratch, which makes them the option that needs the most SEO effort.
Hreflang tags are created automatically for every international domain or subfolder you set up. If you turn those off, you have to add your own tags to the theme. We cover the SEO side of multilingual sites in our international SEO and hreflang guide.
How should you set prices for international markets?
By default Shopify converts prices automatically at the current exchange rate; you can also fix rates manually and round prices. All of these features are only fully available to stores using Shopify Payments.
When setting prices, look at unit economics rather than the exchange rate. Example: a product you sell for 1,500 TL in Turkey picks up shipping, possible import duties and return risk when it goes abroad. If the converted price does not carry those costs, you lose margin on every international order. A percentage adjustment per market is the quickest way to close that gap.
What should you check before opening a new market?
- Place a test order to confirm checkout really works in the target country.
- Check that order confirmation and shipping emails go out in the right language; Shopify shows checkout and notifications in a language once you publish it.
- Hide products in markets where shipping or regulation restricts them.
- State clearly on product pages who pays duties and taxes.
- Decide in which language and during which hours customer support will reply.
If you want a broader starting point on selling abroad, our guide to selling online internationally covers market selection and logistics in more depth.
If you would like your Shopify store's international setup planned together with payments, domains and tracking, take a look at our Shopify agency service. To see how ready your current store is to sell abroad, request a free growth audit from the Performetic team.
Key takeaways
- Shopify Markets lets one store sell to different markets with separate language, domain, price, product and shipping settings.
- Selling in local currencies requires Shopify Payments or Adyen, and Shopify Payments is not offered in Turkey.
- Managed Markets is currently limited to certain stores in the US, Canada and the UK.
- Starting with subfolders is the lowest-effort domain option for most brands, and hreflang is added automatically.
- Set prices from unit economics that include shipping, duties and returns, not from the exchange rate alone.