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A comprehensive comparison of Shopify Markets, Markets Pro, and Global-e for global eCommerce success

In today’s interconnected world, expanding your eCommerce business globally is no longer an option but a necessity. Shopify, one of the leading eCommerce platforms, offers several tools and services to help you reach customers worldwide. Two key solutions are Shopify Markets and Shopify Markets Pro. Additionally, Global-E is another prominent player in the global eCommerce landscape.

In this article, we will delve into the differences, comparisons, and the pros and cons of these platforms and explore how they can work together to enhance a Shopify stores’ globalisation objectives.

Shopify Markets

Shopify Markets is a powerful tool designed to help merchants expand their reach to international customers. It offers a comprehensive set of tools for businesses looking to expand their eCommerce operations globally. It simplifies many of the challenges associated with international selling, from currency management to shipping calculations, and offers a seamless and localised shopping experience for customers around the world. One of the standout features of Shopify Markets is its ability to display product prices in multiple currencies, which enables customers from different countries to view product prices in their local currencies. This not only enhances the user experience but also simplifies the purchasing process, as customers can clearly see the cost of items without the need for manual currency conversions.

Other key features of Shopify Markets:

Localised Checkout: Shopify Markets offers localised checkout experiences, meaning when customers from different regions visit your store, they will see content tailored to their location. This includes translated product descriptions, currency formatting, and preferred payment methods. For instance, if a customer from Germany visits your store, they may see prices in Euros, product descriptions in German, and the option to pay with popular German payment methods like Sofort or PayPal. This level of personalisation can significantly boost conversion rates.

Real-time Shipping Calculations: Shipping can be a complex aspect of international eCommerce due to varying rates, customs regulations, and delivery times. Shopify Markets simplifies this by providing real-time shipping calculations. When a customer enters their address, the platform calculates shipping costs based on factors like distance, package size, and weight. This ensures that customers see accurate shipping rates before they complete their purchase, reducing the likelihood of cart abandonment.

International Domains: To further enhance your global presence, Shopify Markets allows you to have multiple domains for different countries or regions. For example, you can have a .com domain for your U.S. customers and a .co.uk domain for your customers in the United Kingdom. This not only helps with branding but also improves SEO in specific regions, as search engines often favour local domain extensions.

Language Support: While Shopify Markets primarily focuses on currency and checkout localisation, it also offers support for multiple languages in terms of translating the interface and key pages of your online store. This makes it easier to reach customers in regions with different primary languages, further increasing your global appeal.

Customer Support: Expanding globally often means dealing with customers from various time zones and cultural backgrounds. Shopify provides customer support 24/7, which is crucial for addressing inquiries and issues from customers around the world promptly. This support can be invaluable in maintaining a positive international reputation.

Analytics and Reporting: Understanding your global customers is essential for successful expansion. Shopify Markets offers analytics and reporting tools that allow you to track sales, traffic, and customer behaviour in different regions. This data can help you make informed decisions and refine your global eCommerce strategy over time.

App Ecosystem: Shopify has a vast ecosystem of apps and integrations that can further enhance your international eCommerce efforts. You can find apps for everything from language translation and currency conversion to international marketing and tax compliance.

Here are the pros and cons of Shopify Markets:

Pros of Shopify Markets:

User-Friendly Interface: Shopify Markets provides an intuitive interface, making it easy for merchants to set up and manage their international operations.
Multi-Currency Support: It allows merchants to display prices in multiple currencies, enhancing the shopping experience for international customers.
Localised Checkout: The platform offers localised checkout experiences, including translated content and preferred payment methods, increasing conversion rates.
Shipping Calculations: Shopify Markets provides real-time shipping calculations, enabling accurate shipping cost estimates for international orders.

Cons of Shopify Markets:

Limited Localisation: While it supports multiple currencies, it may lack some advanced localisation features necessary for certain markets.
Transaction Fees: Merchants may incur additional transaction fees when selling in multiple currencies, affecting profit margins.

Global-E

Global-E is an international eCommerce service provider that specialises in helping online retailers expand their global reach and streamline their cross-border operations. Global-E is a prominent player in the global eCommerce landscape, providing a comprehensive suite of solutions. These services relate to currency conversion, language translation, and localised checkout experiences which help to create a seamless and tailored shopping experience for customers in different countries. Global-E’s management of duties, taxes, and customs regulations is what sets it apart from Shopify Markets. Often a complex aspect of international eCommerce is the admin that goes behind to scenes to ensure the business is complying with local tax laws and regulations. Global-E simplifies this process by automating duty and tax calculations, ensuring compliance with local tax laws, allowing the brand to focus on its daily business activities, safe in the knowledge that Global-E is taking care of the tax law processing.

Other key features of Global-E:

Duty and Tax Management: Managing duties, taxes, and customs regulations is often a complex aspect of international eCommerce. Global-E simplifies this process by automating duty and tax calculations and ensuring compliance with local tax laws.

Enhanced Security and Fraud Prevention: Security is a top priority in global eCommerce. Global-E typically offers robust security measures to protect both merchants and customers from fraudulent activities, enhancing trust and safety in cross-border transactions.

Global Shipping Solutions: Global-E may assist with optimising international shipping processes, including shipping cost calculations and delivery options. This helps businesses provide accurate shipping estimates and offer flexible delivery choices to international customers.

Cross-Border eCommerce Solutions: Global-E provides a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to facilitate cross-border eCommerce. This includes services related to currency conversion, language translation, and localised checkout experiences. These solutions help businesses create a seamless and tailored shopping experience for customers in different countries.

Multi-Currency Support: Global-E enables online retailers to display product prices and process payments in multiple currencies. This feature simplifies the shopping experience for international customers, making it easier for them to understand pricing and make purchases.

Language Localisation: To cater to diverse linguistic preferences, Global-E offers language localisation services. This includes translating product descriptions, website content, and checkout pages to ensure that customers can interact with your online store in their preferred language.

Local Payment Methods: Global-E helps businesses integrate a wide range of local payment methods into their eCommerce stores. This is crucial for accommodating various payment preferences and increasing conversion rates among international customers.

Data Analytics and Insights: Understanding customer behaviour and performance metrics in international markets is vital for success. Global-E typically provides data analytics and insights to help businesses make informed decisions and refine their global eCommerce strategies.

Here are the pros and cons of Global-E:

Pros of Global-E:

Robust Localisation: Global-E offers extensive localisation capabilities, including language translation, localised content, and currency support.
Global Payment Methods: It provides access to a wide range of global payment methods, improving customer convenience.
Duty and Tax Management: Global-E handles the complexities of cross-border taxes and duties, ensuring compliance.
Enhanced Security: The platform prioritises security and fraud prevention, protecting both merchants and customers.

Cons of Global-E:

Additional Integration Effort: Integrating Global-E with Shopify requires some technical know-how and may take time.
Cost: While Global-E offers valuable features, its services come at a price, which might not be suitable for smaller businesses.

Shopify Markets Pro

Shopify Markets Pro is an advanced extension of Shopify Markets. It harnesses the power of Global-E to simplify international selling. When you choose Shopify Markets Pro, Global-E takes on the role of the “merchant of record,” assuming legal responsibility for international sales. As the merchant of record, Global-E handles complex tasks such as tax remittance to local authorities, accepting diverse payment methods, and managing duties and import taxes. This relieves you from the administrative burdens of international commerce, making it easier to enter new global markets swiftly. One significant advantage is that you no longer need to register for taxes in the countries where you sell. Global-E handles tax registration, ensuring compliance with local tax regulations. This streamlined approach allows you to focus on expanding your global reach and growing your eCommerce business without getting bogged down in intricate international tax and compliance matters.

Shopify invested heavily in Global-E to bring some of their market leading cross-border eCommerce solutions under the Shopify umbrella, giving merchants the full Global-E suite of globalisation products without being directed away from Shopify’s simple user experience and dashboards.

Shopify Markets Pro however is currently in BETA and only available in the US market. But it’s due to hit our shores later on this year (2023). Shopify Markets Pro is request-only access currently, but as Shopify begins rolling the Markets Pro out to the masses, it will undoubtedly be a feature available for all as they continue to deliver to a philosophy of all features available to all, helping all merchants to succeed both domestically and internationally.

It’s worth noting that there are prerequisites for applying for Pro.

Other key features of Shopify Markets Pro:

Compliance and Product Restrictions: Shopify Markets Pro ensures conformity with local laws governing cross-border products, restricting certain items to specific destinations. It also generates and submits commercial invoices where necessary, simplifying compliance efforts.

Stable Currency Conversion Rate for Refunds: Within a 30-day window from the initial transaction, Markets Pro guarantees a consistent currency conversion rate for refunds. This shields you from fluctuations in currency exchange rates when processing returns.

Predictable Duty and Tax Amounts: The duty and tax figures displayed to your customers during checkout are fixed and assured by Markets Pro. Even if customs imposes different charges, the platform covers the variance, sparing you from unexpected fees.

Local Tax Filing Registration: Markets Pro shoulders the responsibility of handling tax filing obligations in local destinations, ensuring smooth compliance for your Markets Pro orders.

Robust Fraud Management: Each order on Markets Pro undergoes automated fraud scrutiny and benefits from chargeback protection. Although rare, cases not covered by Markets Pro require your direct intervention, detailed in the Fraud and chargebacks section.

Boosted Customer Conversion: Markets Pro supports valuable features like Shop Pay, the inclusion of local payment methods for customers in their respective countries, and shipping (find out more about shipping with Shopify Markets Pro) with pre-paid duties. These features can significantly enhance your customer conversion rates.

Enhanced Customer Experience: By offering delivered duty paid (DDP) shipping during checkout, you eliminate surprise fees for your customers upon delivery. This transparency in shipping costs contributes to smoother cart conversions and elevates the overall customer experience, potentially boosting customer retention rates.

Here are the pros and cons of Shopify Markets Pro:

Pros of Shopify Markets Pro:

Duty and Tax Calculations: It automates the calculation of duties and taxes, simplifying the cross-border selling process.
Advanced Localisation: Shopify Markets Pro provides more extensive localisation options, including language translation, region-specific content, and local payment methods.
Global SEO Optimisation: Enhanced SEO tools help improve the visibility of your store in international search engines.
Inventory Management: Advanced inventory management features help keep track of stock levels across multiple international locations.

Cons of Shopify Markets Pro:

Higher Cost: Shopify Markets Pro comes at a higher cost compared to the basic Shopify Markets subscription.
Complexity: The additional features can be overwhelming for small businesses or those new to international eCommerce.

How They Can Work Together?

To enhance a Shopify stores’ globalisation objectives, merchants can consider using a combination of these platforms. Here’s how they can complement each other:

Start with Shopify Markets: Begin by expanding to international markets using Shopify Markets. It provides a cost-effective way to test the waters and gauge demand in different regions.
Integrate Global-E: For a more seamless and comprehensive global eCommerce experience, integrate Global-E with your Shopify store. This will provide access to a broader range of international payment methods, enhanced localisation, and robust tax management.
Upgrade to Shopify Markets Pro: As your international sales grow, consider upgrading to Shopify Markets Pro for advanced localisation and duty/tax calculations, but be aware this option is only currently available in the US (Sept 23).
Compare Shopify Markets Vs Shopify Markets Pro: If you’re considering using Shopify Markets Pro, take a moment to examine the feature comparison table provided by Shopify here, which outlines the features between Shopify Markets and Shopify Markets Pro.

Conclusion

In conclusion, expanding your eCommerce business into international markets is a complex yet rewarding endeavour. To navigate the intricacies of global commerce successfully, it’s essential to leverage the right tools and services.

Shopify Markets, with its multi-currency support, localised checkout, and real-time shipping calculations, provides a solid foundation for global expansion. For those seeking advanced capabilities, Shopify Markets Pro, when available, extends these features with enhanced localisation, duty and tax management, global SEO optimisation, and inventory management. This plan empowers businesses to tailor their approach to different regions while maintaining compliance and streamlining operations. Global-E, a partner of Shopify, offers a comprehensive suite of cross-border eCommerce solutions. It specialises in multi-currency support, language localisation, duty and tax management, and global payment methods, providing a holistic approach to international selling.

To maximise your global eCommerce potential, consider integrating Global-E with Shopify and potentially upgrading to Shopify Markets Pro as your international sales grow. These solutions work harmoniously to enhance localisation, improve payment flexibility, manage complex tax and duty calculations, and ensure a seamless shopping experience for customers worldwide.

Remember that successful global eCommerce requires ongoing adaptation and a commitment to meeting the diverse needs of international customers. By carefully selecting and integrating these platforms, businesses can unlock the vast potential of global markets while streamlining their global operations.

If you’re considering expanding your customer base and venturing into new markets, we invite you to reach out to us at Multivitamin Studio hi@multivitamin.studio. With over a decade of expertise we are well-equipped to guide your business towards achieving its goals, regardless of its stage of development. Your international eCommerce aspirations can become a reality with the right strategies and partners by your side.