Cross-Border Ecommerce on Shopify: A Practical Playbook for Currencies, Duties, Local Payments, and Localization

Apr 1, 2021

The Shopify stack for cross-border growth

Start by mapping the tools to your scope and risk profile.

Shopify International, previously called Shopify Markets, gives you multi-currency, market-specific domains or subfolders, language support, and price controls. Shopify confirms that you can display local currency and round prices by market using price rounding so prices stay clean after FX conversion. The Rounding prices guide explains how to stabilize endings by currency, and the Multi-currency documentation outlines requirements and options.
Managed Markets is Shopify’s full-service cross-border solution. As Shopify stated in its changelog, Markets Pro was renamed Managed Markets in June 2024. Managed Markets uses a merchant of record model powered by Global-e and can handle remitting taxes, duties, localized payments, and chargeback protection. The Managed Markets overview details benefits like guaranteed duty and tax amounts at checkout, local payment methods, and address validation.

If you want tight control and already have tax registrations, start with Shopify International. If you want speed, guaranteed landed costs, and outsourced tax complexity, use Managed Markets.

Currency strategy and pricing that protect margin

Getting currency right builds trust and protects your contribution margin.

Conversion fees and FX. Shopify explains that when you accept a payment in a currency different from your payout currency, there is a conversion fee. The fees page shows 1.5 percent FX fee for US stores and 2 percent for other Shopify Payments regions. Plan for these in your pricing.
Local price presentation. Customers are more likely to buy when prices look native. Shopify’s rounding rules let you round to common pricing endings in each currency so conversion swings do not produce awkward price tails.
Market-specific adjustments. Use price lists or market adjustments to reflect regional competition and shipping costs. If you sell bundles or kits, tighten positioning using our frameworks in the StoreAcquire guide on DTC pricing and bundling, and reinforce margin discipline with the ecommerce pricing strategy playbook.

To launch faster with fewer moving parts, begin in your top one or two markets. Add additional currencies and price lists in waves once you have real unit economics by region.

Duties, taxes, and a frictionless landed cost

Unexpected import charges are a top reason for refused packages and chargebacks. You can solve this at checkout.

DDP vs DAP. Shopify clarifies the difference between Delivered Duty Paid and Delivered Duty Unpaid in its duties and import taxes guide. DDP means you collect duties and taxes in checkout and the carrier delivers with no additional payment at the door. DAP or DDU pushes payment to the customer on delivery and often adds brokerage fees, which risks refusal.
Collect at checkout. Shopify lets eligible stores collect duties and import taxes at checkout. You will need HS codes and country of origin on products, and a DDP-capable carrier if you buy labels in Shopify. Shopify lists supported DDP label carriers such as DHL Express and Canada Post in that documentation.
De minimis and tax thresholds. De minimis thresholds vary by country. Shopify’s duties guide provides examples like 150 euros for EU duty thresholds and 135 pounds for UK low-value VAT. These thresholds influence whether import VAT or duties apply.
EU IOSS. For EU-bound consignments not exceeding 150 euros, the VAT Import One Stop Shop lets you charge VAT at checkout and remit monthly via a single registration. KPMG’s summary of the Council’s 2025 draft directive confirms that the IOSS applies up to 150 euros and outlines proposals to further incentivize IOSS use.

Managed Markets simplifies these choices. Shopify states that Managed Markets guarantees the duty and tax amounts shown in checkout, then handles remittance and covers any deltas charged by customs. That reduces landed cost surprises and improves delivery acceptance rates.

Local payments that convert like a native brand

Payment preferences vary by country. Your job is to match them.

Wallets dominate. Worldpay’s 2024 Global Payments Report notes that digital wallets already accounted for 50 percent of global ecommerce transaction value in 2023 and are projected to reach 49 percent of all sales online and in-store combined by 2027, over 25 trillion dollars in value. The press release for the report highlights this trend and its drivers (Worldpay’s 2024 release).
Local methods lift conversion. Stripe’s experiment across more than 50 payment methods found that dynamically surfacing a relevant local method beyond cards increased revenue by 12 percent and conversion by 7.4 percent on average. The gains are larger when the method is country dominant, such as a 39 percent lift with iDEAL in the Netherlands or 46 percent with BLIK in Poland. Read the full analysis in Stripe’s conversion impact study.
Local currency matters. PYMNTS reports that nearly all cross-border shoppers expect to pay using preferred methods and 94 percent want local currency shown. Their July 2025 brief stresses that 99 percent of cross-border shoppers expect local payment options, reinforcing the imperative to localize checkout (PYMNTS coverage).

On Shopify, enabling local options is straightforward. Shopify Payments supports a growing catalog of localized methods, and the local payment methods page lists options such as iDEAL, Bancontact, Sofort, Przelewy24, BLIK, EPS, MobilePay, Twint, and Klarna by region. Managed Markets expands coverage further, with Shopify documenting additional methods including PayPal, Vipps, and country-specific cards in its Managed Markets overview.

Finally, do not overlook accelerated checkout. Shopify explains that Shop Pay can lift conversion by as much as 50 percent compared to guest checkout, and even its mere presence can raise lower funnel conversion. See the details in Shopify’s guide to one-click checkout.

Localization that compounds SEO and trust

Language, structure, and signals all influence whether international visitors find you and feel at home on your site.

Domains and subfolders. Shopify’s guide to international domains explains that you can use ccTLDs, subdomains, or subfolders per market, and that hreflang and sitemaps are handled automatically for each published language. Subfolders are often the fastest path to SEO lift because they inherit your main domain’s authority.
Translation and copy. Use Shopify’s Translate and Adapt or a compatible app to localize core pages, policies, and checkout language. Local idioms and shipping policy clarity reduce bounce and pre-purchase anxiety. Pair this with our StoreAcquire checklist of 27 tests in the Checkout Optimization guide and front-load the items that impact international buyers most, such as duty-included pricing and delivery windows.
Personalization. Zero-party data can amplify localization by segment. Use pre-purchase quizzes and preference capture to identify regional tastes, and then adapt merchandising and messaging. Our Zero-Party Data Playbook shows how to structure these flows for high opt-in rates and sustained LTV.

Operations that remove friction before it appears

Shipping labels and carriers. If you collect duties and taxes in checkout, Shopify supports DDP labels for specific carriers when you purchase labels in admin. The DDP label details call out DHL Express and Canada Post among others. If you use a non-supported carrier, you can still ship DDP by purchasing labels externally.
Returns and refunds. Managed Markets guarantees FX rates on refunds within 30 days, a helpful hedge against currency swings for customer-friendly returns. Shopify outlines this in the Managed Markets benefits.
Fraud protection. Managed Markets includes automatic fraud reviews and chargeback protection for covered scenarios. If you operate with Shopify International, ensure you have robust 3DS, velocity checks, and rule-based reviews tuned by market.

A 30-day launch plan for your first or next market

Week 1: Market selection and pricing. Choose a single expansion market based on existing traffic and shipping feasibility. Turn on local currency, configure rounding rules, and set initial price adjustments. Confirm your FX and processing cost stack with Shopify’s fees guidance.
Week 2: Duties and catalog readiness. Add HS codes and country of origin for top SKUs, then activate duty and tax collection at checkout as described in Shopify’s collection setup. Test DDP with your carrier or consider Managed Markets for guaranteed landed cost.
Week 3: Local payments and checkout. Enable the relevant local payment methods for your market, then add Shop Pay and a major wallet like Apple Pay or PayPal. Use the StoreAcquire checkout tests to evaluate speed, autofill, tax messaging, and refund copy.
Week 4: Localization and QA. Stand up a subfolder or subdomain, publish translations for nav, PDP, cart, and policy pages, and verify hreflang. Run full-funnel UAT with local test cards or sandbox methods. Launch with a country-specific offer and clear shipping promise.

If you need a turnkey path with rapid coverage of payment methods and taxes, use Shopify’s Managed Markets overview to validate eligibility and pricing. For most brands, the speed benefit outweighs the service fee while you build internal capability.

Measurement that keeps the flywheel honest

Funnel and method-level conversion. Break out sessions, checkout starts, and purchases by market, device, and payment method. Stripe’s data shows method-level gains can be dramatic, such as 39 percent with iDEAL in the Netherlands. Test and keep what wins.
Authorization rate and cost stack. Watch auth rates and chargebacks by method and region. Wallets often raise authorization, while bank debits may lower cost without harming conversion. Stripe’s study found a neutral to positive impact for ACH and SEPA debits, with some cases of 100 percent incremental volume.
Total landed cost and return rate. Track duty-included orders, refused deliveries, and return reasons. If surprise fees or delivery delays appear, DDP adoption, address validation, or carrier mix are your levers.
Attribution and profitability by market. Tie regional spend to contribution margin, not just ROAS. Our guide to ecommerce attribution for 2025 covers how to combine GA4 with MMM and first-party data for a clearer market-level picture.

Putting it together

Customers want local payment choice and price clarity. Airwallex’s report shows 77 percent will bounce if their preferred method is missing, and PYMNTS highlighted that 94 percent want to pay in their local currency.
Wallets and local methods are no longer optional. The Worldpay 2024 report shows wallets dominated half of ecommerce in 2023, while Stripe’s experiments quantify conversion lifts when you add country-dominant options.
Shopify has the playbook built in. Use International for multi-currency, domains, and translation with your own tax registrations, or use Managed Markets if you want tax remittance and guaranteed duty calculation out of the box.

If you are starting from zero, you can be live in a new country inside a month. If you are rebuilding for scale, refactor your storefront structure and payments mix, then expand in waves. For a head start, consider building on Shopify and subscribe to the StoreAcquire newsletter for weekly, operator-grade playbooks that ship results. Learn about our approach on the About page and explore recent case studies like our 50k to 500k MRR playbook.