Shopify Expansion Stores vs Shopify Markets: Picking the Right Global Growth Model

Learn if Expansion Stores or Shopify Markets fits your business. Compare features, costs, and strategies to choose the right global growth model.

Co-founder & CEO
Shopify Expansion Stores vs Shopify Markets: Picking the Right Global Growth Model

If your brand sells across multiple countries, sustainable growth depends on more than just reaching new markets. Customers expect pricing in their own currency, checkout in their own language, and fulfillment that feels local.

For Shopify merchants, that usually means making a big decision: Should you set up multiple Expansion Stores for different regions, or should you centralize operations under Shopify Markets?

Before we dive in, let’s clear up a common misconception: Expansion Stores aren’t a technical feature from Shopify. They’re simply multiple Shopify stores created and managed under one organization. Think of it like creating two Google accounts: you still have two separate environments. “Expansion Stores” is just the shorthand that Shopify and merchants use for this setup.

Shopify Markets, on the other hand, lets you serve multiple regions with a single store, with tools for currency, language, domains, duties, and fulfillment logic built in.

Choosing the wrong model can come at a cost: bloated IT stacks, compliance headaches, higher conversion fees, or even stalled growth. This guide breaks down both approaches, complete with enterprise use cases, comparison tables, and a practical decision checklist, so you can choose the framework that fits your global growth strategy best.

Table of contents

What are Shopify Expansion Stores?

An Expansion Store is an additional Shopify store you create for a new geography under the same organization account. Merchants call them “Expansion Stores” because they’re most often created when a brand expands into new geographies.

Let’s take an example of a fashion retailer headquartered in France that wants to launch in the UK and the US. Instead of running it under one Shopify storefront, they create:

  • Store 1: “brand.fr” for France (EUR, French copy, local payments). Managed in Shopify as “store-fr.myshopify.com”.
  • Store 2: “brand.co.uk” for the UK (GBP, English copy, UK payment methods). Managed in Shopify as “store-gb.myshopify.com”.
  • Store 3: “brand.com” for the US (USD, US fulfillment). Managed in Shopify as “store-us.myshopify.com”.

Each store is fully independent, with regional language, native checkout, payouts, taxes, catalog, and analytics. It’s the same platform and admin experience, but just a separate environment with its own settings, catalog, and workflows.

A deeper dive into how Shopify Expansion Stores impact your ecommerce business

Shopify Expansion Stores give merchants maximum control, but that control comes with duplication and operational overhead. They are often the right choice when governance, compliance, or regional autonomy is a higher priority than speed or simplicity.

Key features

  • Separate Shopify admin for each region (like running multiple accounts).
  • Distinct domains or subdomains for localized SEO.
  • Country-specific catalogs, pricing, taxes, and duties.
  • Direct connection to local payment gateways and bank accounts.
  • Dedicated warehousing and carriers tied to each store.
  • Standalone analytics dashboards per region.

Advantages

  • Entity clarity: Every store ties neatly to its own legal entity, tax rules, and bank account.
  • Team separation: Regional teams manage their own store without exposing other markets’ data.
  • Payments without currency conversion friction: Accept and settle in local currency, avoiding Shopify Payments’ conversion fees.
  • Full logistics control: Route orders directly from regional warehouses without complex workarounds.
  • Franchise or distributor ready: Easily hand over store ownership to a local partner while keeping the brand consistent.

Disadvantages

  • Duplication everywhere: Every product update, content change, and campaign has to be repeated across stores.
  • Heavy IT overhead: More integrations (ERP, OMS, ESP) to maintain, and more chances for breakage.
  • SEO limitations: Multiple domains split authority; hreflang setup requires manual work or third-party apps.
  • Fragmented reporting: Harder to get consolidated insights without Shopify Plus multi-store reporting.
  • Slower rollouts: Entering a new market means spinning up another full store: domains, catalog, taxes, workflows, everything.

Setting up Shopify Expansion Stores

Launching an Expansion Store simply means creating another Shopify store and configuring it for a specific region. The exact flow depends on whether you’re on Shopify Plus or a standard plan:

For Shopify Plus merchants:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Organization.
  2. Click “Create store”.
  3. The new store will be under your organization, but it’s still a separate Shopify environment with its own admin, apps, and configurations.

For merchants on all other plans:

  1. Go to your Shopify dashboard and create a new store.
  2. Use the same brand details but configure the store for the region you’re targeting.
  3. You’ll manage it independently, just like your main store.

Once your new store is created, the setup is the same:

Assign a domain for the region (e.g., “brand.co.uk”, “brand.ca”). Your domain strategy directly affects SEO.

Load your catalog into the new store: You can either clone your main catalog for consistency or curate/reprice products specifically for the new region.

Configure payments and taxes: Align with the local entity and bank accounts where needed. This step is where Expansion Stores provides the biggest advantage— payouts, invoicing, and taxes can be handled locally without conversion fees.

Set up fulfillment rule: Connect regional warehouses, carriers, and shipping logic. Expansion Stores lets you isolate stock by region so orders don’t cross borders unintentionally.

Integrate apps and systems (ERP, OMS, ESP, loyalty, analytics): Each store needs its own integrations, which can increase IT overhead.

Localize content: Duplicate or localize content across homepages, product descriptions, blogs, and campaigns. Each store is a self-contained environment, so you choose between duplicating content or creating fully localized experiences.

When running Shopify Expansion Stores, the challenge is in keeping multiple Shopify stores seamless for the shopper. Without the right systems in place, customers may land on the wrong version of your site or face friction when switching between stores.

That’s exactly what Orbe solves. Orbe detects your customer’s geolocation and language from their very first visit, then redirects them to the correct store. Instead of managing clunky “store pickers” or risking abandoned sessions, you deliver a native, seamless experience, whether you’re running 2, 10, or 20 Expansion Stores.

With 10,000+ active installations, Orbe is the best geolocation app for Shopify, trusted by top brands like Nike Strength, Timex, Victoria Beckham, FC Barcelona, and Liquid Death.

Try the app for free in the Shopify App Store.

Try Orbe now

What is Shopify Markets?

Shopify Markets is Shopify’s native framework for selling internationally through a single store. Instead of managing multiple Expansion Stores, you control currencies, domains, languages, taxes, and duties inside one admin. This keeps your global operations centralized and lean.

Shopify recently started rebranding this as “Shopify International”. The distinction is subtle but important:

  • Shopify International: The full global commerce toolkit (Markets, B2B, POS, Markets Pro).
  • Shopify Markets: The feature set for creating custom regional experiences within one store.

Even though Shopify pushes the “International” label, most merchants and agencies still say “Markets,” because it was the starting point and remains the base of Shopify’s cross-border strategy.

Let’s say you run a French fashion brand. With Expansion Stores, you’d manage “brand.fr”, “brand.co.uk”, and “brand.com” as separate shops. With Markets, you run just one Shopify store:

  • A French shopper sees EUR pricing, French content, and local carriers.
  • A UK shopper sees GBP, English content, and a duty-included checkout.
  • A US shopper sees USD, US-specific promos, and domestic fulfillment.

You still have one catalog, one set of apps, and one analytics view. The regional differences live inside Shopify Markets settings, not in separate stores.

When Shopify Markets fit best

Shopify Markets are the right setup if you:

  • Operate under one legal entity and don’t need separate tax IDs or bank accounts per region. Multi-entity setups are possible but limited, since Shopify Markets doesn’t fully separate tax IDs or bank accounts per region.
  • Want to launch new markets quickly without spinning up extra stores.
  • Prioritize SEO efficiency since Shopify Markets lets you use subfolders and generates hreflang tags automatically.
  • Accept Shopify Payments and its currency conversion fees for simplicity.
  • Run fulfillment centrally or need only light order-routing rules across warehouses.
  • Prefer one global team over regional silos.

A deeper dive into how Shopify Markets impact your ecommerce business

Markets are designed for speed and simplicity. You gain efficiency by centralizing everything (catalog, campaigns, workflows), but you sacrifice some of the granular control that Expansion Stores offer.

Key features

  • Single Shopify store serving multiple countries.
  • Regional rules for pricing, taxes, and duties.
  • Multi-currency checkout powered by Shopify Payments.
  • Automatic hreflang + SEO-friendly subfolder setup.
  • Order routing across multiple warehouses.

Advantages

  • Centralize operations: Manage products, content, and campaigns in one admin.
  • Faster expansion: Test or launch new regions with settings, not whole stores.
  • SEO-friendly: Consolidate authority on one domain with subfolders and automatic hreflang tags.
  • Lower IT overhead: Fewer integrations and less workflow duplication.
  • Unified reporting: One analytics environment for global visibility.

Disadvantages

  • Currency conversion costs add up: Shopify Payments adds conversion fees on top of processing.
  • Entity constraints: Multi-entity support exists, but only on Plus or Commerce plans and with limitations.
  • Weaker governance: You can’t wall off regional teams or isolate their data.
  • Local payment gaps: Some country-specific gateways are harder to implement.
  • Limited logistics control: Order routing works, but not as precisely as fully separate Expansion Stores.

Setting up Shopify Markets

Creating a market in Shopify is faster than setting up Expansion Stores, but you still need to configure it carefully to avoid hidden friction later. Shopify Markets includes a set of rules that define how a specific group of customers (by country, company, or channel) experience your store.

Here is a step-by-step guide on setting up Shopify Markets:

Create a market from your Shopify admin. Go to Markets → Create Market.

Name your market and decide whether to launch it as Active (live immediately) or Draft (preview first).

Define who it applies to:

  • Regional markets: By country or region (e.g., UK, EU).
  • B2B markets: By company location.
  • Retail markets: By POS location.

Review inherited settings: By default, the new market pulls in your store’s base configuration.

Customize where needed:

  • Currency and pricing.
  • Languages and translations.
  • Taxes and duties.
  • Payment and shipping methods.
  • Domains or subfolders for SEO.

Save and publish when you’re ready for customers to see the localized version.

While you can set up a new regional experience in minutes, the challenge is in making sure it actually feels local. Automatic translations often miss nuance, and duplicating campaigns for each region can quickly get messy.

This is where Orbe helps. Instead of siloing content or relying on clunky translation apps, Orbe:

  • Detects your customer’s language, location, and currency on the first visit.
  • Redirects them to the right experience automatically.
  • Welcomes them with a localized popup that confirms they’re shopping in the right place.

This way, your store scales internationally without creating parallel operations. Customers land in the right language and region by default, and you maintain one clean stack.

Shopify Expansion Stores vs Shopify Markets: compared

Expansion Stores give you maximum independence at the cost of duplication, while Markets give you speed and centralization, but with limitations around entities, governance, and payments. 

The table below breaks down the difference between the two so you can see exactly where each model fits best.

Shopify Expansion
Shopify Markets
Best for
Best for Brands with multiple entities, regional teams, or franchise/distributor setups. Brands with one entity that want speed, centralization, and lean operations.
Catalog and merchandising
Catalog and merchandising Separate catalogs per store, full flexibility. Allows multiple catalogs per market with flexibility, but the interface and priority rules can be complex. Handling product availability by country often requires workarounds, such as duplicating products.
Language and content
Language and content Independent content per store, manual duplication. Centralized content with translations layered by market.
Checkouts and payment UX
Checkouts and payment UX Local payment providers per store; customers pay natively. Dependent on Shopify Payments for checkout; some local options are limited.
Geolocation and redirection
Geolocation and redirection Doesn’t include native cross-store redirection. Requires third-party app like Orbe to unify experience. Includes a native automatic redirection but faces SEO, GDPR, and UX issues, requiring a consent-first geolocation solution like Orbe.
Legal entity support
Legal entity support Clean separation by store; each entity runs its own. Limited to Plus/Commerce plans; constrained flexibility.
Taxation and duties
Taxation and duties Independent tax rules per store. Duties/taxes configurable but tied to central store logic.
Regulatory compliance
Regulatory compliance Easier to isolate the compliance region by region. Shared compliance framework across one store.
Financial governance
Financial governance Separate ledgers, accounting, and payouts. Centralized finance; entity-level separation is limited.
Payments and payouts
Payments and payouts Local banks and gateways per store. Multi-currency payouts are possible, but with fees.
Exchange rate fees
Exchange rate fees None, can be settled directly in local currency Yes, additional currency conversion fees through Shopify Payments.
Cost and resource overhead
Cost and resource overhead High costs due to duplicate workflows, apps, and integrations. Lower costs since one stack requires fewer integrations, simpler maintenance.
Warehousing & inventory management
Warehousing & inventory management Regional warehouses are tied directly to each store Centralized with order-routing logic, less granular.
Cross-border fulfillment
Cross-border fulfillment Independent per store, giving maximum control. Shared and flexible setup.
Order routing & shipping rules
Order routing & shipping rules Fully customizable order routing & shipping rules per region, allowing greater control but requiring more setup. Automated and centralized order routing & shipping rules, which simplify fulfillment but are less granular.
Regional autonomy
Regional autonomy Strong autonomy since teams manage independent stores. Weak autonomy since all teams share one environment.
Collaboration & workflow duplication
Collaboration & workflow duplication Duplicated workflows across stores. Centralized and singular workflow for all markets.
Governance & permissions
Governance & permissions Separate permissions per store. Shared governance, making it harder to isolate.
Legal entities
Legal entities Each store ties to its own entity. Only partially supported in Markets.
Banking and payouts
Banking and payouts Direct local banking. Limited multi-currency payout support, with fees.
Accounting and auditing
Accounting and auditing Clear, per-store separation. Unified, but entity separation is harder.
Domains & structure
Domains & structure Separate domains/subdomains; authority split. Subfolders on one domain; stronger SEO consolidation.
Hreflang and indexation
Hreflang and indexation Manual setup or apps required. Automatic hreflang and indexation.
Analytics and search console
Analytics and search console Siloed reporting per store (multi-store reporting on Plus). Centralized analytics, unified console.
Integrations
Integrations Separate integrations for each store. Single set of integrations across all markets.
Platform management & maintenance
Platform management & maintenance More overhead; multiple stores to update. One store to manage.
Security and access control
Security and access control Isolated security and access control per store. Shared security access with less separation.
Data consolidation
Data consolidation Fragmented data (unless on Plus) Centralized data by default.
Granularity and regional segmentation
Granularity and regional segmentation High granularity and regional segmentation. Each store is fully independent Limited, with segmentation available within one store
Integration with BI/external tools
Integration with BI/external tools Integration requires consolidation from multiple stores. Easier integration with one data source.
Scalability and future-proofing
Scalability and future-proofing Slower scale, but maximum flexibility. Faster scale, but it depends on the Shopify Payments ecosystem.
Ecosystem flexibility
Ecosystem flexibility Freedom to pick local apps, gateways, and partners per store. Constrained by a Shopify-first ecosystem.
Risk & business continuity
Risk & business continuity Issues are isolated to one store. Centralized store creates a single point of failure
Total cost of ownership
Total cost of ownership Higher due to duplicate costs and complexity. Lower due to leaner operations and fewer systems

What to consider when picking between Expansion Stores and Shopify Markets

Choosing between Expansion Stores and Shopify Markets isn’t just a technical decision. It’s a structural one that impacts compliance, operations, and long-term scalability. Before committing, merchants should weigh these enterprise-level factors.

Entity structure

If your organization operates under multiple legal entities, Expansion Stores give you more separation. Each store can have its own tax setup, bank account, and payout method, so invoices, compliance, and accounting stay local and legally aligned.

Markets, by contrast, are optimized for merchants running under a single entity. You can technically enable multi-entity support on Shopify Plus or Commerce plans with Shopify Payments, but the functionality is limited.

With Shopify Markets, you can’t assign full independence to each entity the way that Expansion Stores allow, and conversion fees may still apply when payouts flow back to your primary account.

Logistics complexity

If you manage distributed warehouses across regions, Expansion Stores give you granular control. Each store ties directly to its own stock, carriers, and fulfillment rules, so orders never cross from France to the US by mistake.

Markets offers order routing and multi-warehouse support, but it works on shared rules inside one store. That makes setup faster but less precise. 

If your business depends on strict regional logistics, Expansion Stores give you far more control.

Financial operations

Expansion Stores let you connect to local payment providers and local bank accounts. That means you can settle in-region, avoid foreign transaction costs, and choose gateways that your customers actually use.

Markets centralize payments through Shopify Payments. It simplifies reconciliation, but comes with trade-offs. Full functionality requires being on Shopify Plus or Commerce plans, and currency conversion fees add extra cost when payouts don’t match the local currency.

Team governance & operational separation

Choose Expansion Stores if your business structure demands complete separation between regions or entities. This means that your EMEA team will not see US analytics, orders, or workflows. Each region manages its own environment, with no risk of overlap.

This setup also works when different companies operate under the same global brand (e.g., franchises or joint ventures).

If your priority is speed and simplicity, Shopify Markets is better. With one store, your global team manages products, campaigns, and reporting from a single hub.

The trade-off is less separation. Teams share access and visibility across regions. For brands that don’t need hard boundaries between markets, this simplicity is almost always the better choice.

IT governance

Every new Expansion Store means a new set of integrations to maintain: ERP, OMS, ESP, CMS, analytics, loyalty apps, and more. That multiplies cost, adds points of failure, and increases management time. If your business runs five or ten stores, you’re essentially running five or ten separate stacks.

Whereas Shopify Markets keeps everything inside one stack. You integrate once (payments, analytics, ERP, ESP) and manage it from a single admin. This reduces overhead, makes updates faster, and lowers the risk of misaligned data across regions.

SEO strategy

With Expansion Stores, each store must use its own domain or subdomain. That creates two major SEO limitations:

  • You cannot use subfolders (e.g., “brand.com/uk”) because each store is a separate environment. If you connect a domain to one store, you can’t reuse that domain structure in another store.
  • You need to manage hreflang tags manually. Shopify’s native hreflang functionality doesn’t work across separate stores, so you either build custom tags or use a third-party app.

This means that your domain authority gets split across multiple sites, and your SEO team has to manage international signals manually.

Markets are far stronger for SEO because it lets you use subfolders under one main domain (e.g., “brand.com/uk”, “brand.com/fr”). This consolidates all authority into a single domain, making it easier to rank and build equity globally.Logistics complexity

Shopify also generates hreflang tags automatically, so search engines understand how your localized versions connect. If you prefer subdomains or separate domains, you can still set them up, but the main benefit is having subfolders available for international SEO.

To put it simply, if SEO is your priority, Markets outperforms Expansion Stores. You keep one clean domain, leverage its authority, and avoid the complexity of manual hreflang management.

Speed vs. control

If you need maximum precision, Expansion Stores give you full control over payments, logistics, compliance, and governance. But that control comes with longer setup times, higher overhead, and slower market launches.

If your priority is rapid global rollout, Markets gives you speed. You can test or launch new regions in minutes by adding settings and not spinning up entire stores. It’s the fastest way to validate new markets without a heavy setup.

Which setup fits you best?

The choice between Expansion Stores and Shopify Markets comes down to how your business is structured and what you value more: control or simplicity. Use the guide below to see where you fit:

If yes, choose
Why
Do you operate with multiple legal entities across regions?
Do you operate with multiple legal entities across regions? Expansion Stores Each entity can run its own store with no restrictions on Expansion Stores.In Shopify Markets, you need Plus or Enterprise for multi-entity support, and even then, it comes with limitations.
Do you manage separate tax/compliance obligations by country?
Do you manage separate tax/compliance obligations by country? Expansion Stores Each store can handle its own tax setup and compliance rules without overlap.
Do you run dedicated logistics hubs per region with complex routing?
Do you run dedicated logistics hubs per region with complex routing? Expansion Stores Regional warehouses tie directly to each store, making fulfillment clean and predictable.
Do you want to avoid currency conversion costs by settling locally?
Do you want to avoid currency conversion costs by settling locally? Expansion Stores Stores can settle directly in local currency, avoiding Shopify Payments’ conversion fees.
Is regional team autonomy and governance separation a priority?
Is regional team autonomy and governance separation a priority? Expansion Stores Each team manages its own store, with data and permissions fully isolated.
Is speed-to-market your top priority?
Is speed-to-market your top priority? Shopify Markets Launch new regions in minutes with settings, not full store builds.
Do you want centralized analytics and campaign visibility?
Do you want centralized analytics and campaign visibility? Shopify Markets All data and campaigns live in one admin for easier reporting.
Do you prefer a leaner IT stack with fewer integrations?
Do you prefer a leaner IT stack with fewer integrations? Shopify Markets One set of integrations powers all markets.
Do you want to minimize duplicate workflows across regions?
Do you want to minimize duplicate workflows across regions? Shopify Markets One store, and one workflow. No need to replicate across multiple environments.
Are you comfortable with a Shopify-first ecosystem (Payments, routing, etc.)?
Are you comfortable with a Shopify-first ecosystem (Payments, routing, etc.)? Shopify Markets Markets relies on Shopify’s ecosystem for payments, order routing, and international features.

Pick the right framework for global scale

Your decision between Shopify Expansion Stores and Shopify Markets comes down to three factors:

  • Entity structure: If you operate multiple legal entities and need clean separation of taxes, payouts, and compliance, Expansion Stores gives you full flexibility. Markets can handle multi-entity setups only on Plus or Enterprise, with limitations.
  • Logistics complexity: If your fulfillment depends on regional warehouses and strict routing rules, Expansion Stores gives you the precision you need. Markets simplify routing inside one store, but you trade control for convenience.
  • Governance model: If autonomy and data separation for regional teams matter most, Expansion Stores keep everything siloed. If you’d rather centralize campaigns, analytics, and workflows, Markets wins on simplicity.

Both paths come with trade-offs. Expansion Stores cost more to manage, while Markets tie you into Shopify’s payments and limit how much control you have over governance. What doesn’t change is the customer’s expectation. Shoppers don’t care how you structure your backend. They just expect to land in the right store, in the right language, from the very first click.

The best move is to evaluate your structure against the checklist above and then remove friction where it matters most. 

Geolocation is critical, no matter how you structure your Shopify setup. Whether you run a single store with Shopify Markets or manage multiple Expansion Stores, Orbe ensures every customer is automatically directed to the right localized store, language, and currency from their very first visit.

With 10,000+ active installations, Orbe is the best geolocation app for Shopify, trusted by top brands like Nike Strength, Timex, Victoria Beckham, FC Barcelona, and Liquid Death.

Try the app for free in the Shopify App Store.

Try Orbe now
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