What It Costs to Sell Internationally on Shopify

Who it is for

Stores starting or growing sales abroad

Time needed

8 minutes to read

What you need

Your international sales by country and your margin

Shopify Markets costs nothing on its own. It comes with every plan, and you can switch on a second country in an afternoon. The money goes on what happens around each international order: converting the shopper's currency, calculating duties at checkout, translating the store and taking local payment methods. On a store with a lot of cross-border sales, those fees can add more to the bill than the plan does.

All rates below come from Shopify's pricing page, its Markets pricing page and its help center, and app prices from the Shopify App Store, as checked on 7 November 2026. The fees per sale are covered in more detail in Shopify fees explained, so here I focus on what selling abroad adds.

The short answer

What every plan includes

Shopify's pricing page lists Shopify Markets, duty and tax estimation and collection, and local domains as included on all plans. Two features depend on Shopify Payments: showing prices in local currencies and accepting local payment methods. If you use a different payment provider, you lose both, and you pay the third-party transaction fee on top.

That means the plan you need for selling abroad is usually the same one you'd need at home.

For most stores, selling abroad from one store with Shopify Markets is the right setup. It keeps one catalog, one set of apps and one plan. Separate stores per country make sense when the catalog, prices or brand are very different. On Plus, up to 9 expansion stores are included, though each live one needs its own theme license. Below Plus, every extra store is a full extra plan with its own apps. I compare the two approaches in Shopify Markets vs multiple stores.

Currency conversion fees

When a shopper pays in a currency other than your payout currency, Shopify charges a conversion fee. Its help center sets the rate by your store's primary country:

• US stores: 1.5%.
• Stores in other Shopify Payments countries, including the UK, the EU and Australia: 2%.
• PayPal Wallet through Shopify Payments, where offered in the US and France: 3%.

The fee applies whether you use automatic or manual exchange rates. It isn't returned when you refund an order, though no second conversion fee is charged on the refund. If many international orders come back, that adds up.

Duties and import taxes at checkout

Charging duties at checkout means the shopper pays everything upfront and doesn't get a customs bill at the door, which cuts refused parcels. Shopify charges for the calculation:

Shopify's help center says the fee was temporarily lowered to 0.5% for all merchants from 2 February 2025, and it hasn't said when that ends. The fee applies to every order with duties calculated at checkout, even when the amount works out at zero. It doesn't apply to domestic orders, orders shipped between EU countries or abandoned checkouts.

To use it, your products need HS codes, you can't use Shopify Fulfillment Network, and if you buy labels, your carrier must support DDP labels. Adding HS codes to a large catalog is a real job, so budget time for it.

Shopify Managed Markets

Managed Markets is the option where Shopify handles more of the cross-border work for you. Shopify's Markets pricing page lists its fee at 3.5% per transaction, or 3.25% on Plus, deducted from your payout. In return, the page says duty and import tax calculations are guaranteed at no extra cost, exchange rates are stabilized weekly and locked for up to 30 days on returns, and the conversion fee is built into the price the buyer sees. You still pay standard Shopify Payments processing.

It costs more per order than handling things yourself. It can be worth it for a store selling into many countries without the staff to manage tax registrations and duty questions in each one.

Translation costs

Shopify's free Translate & Adapt app auto-translates into up to 2 languages, or 8 in select countries, and lets you add manual translations. For many stores that is enough. Paid apps add more languages and words. Weglot, as one example:

Translated words add up across product descriptions, pages and blog posts, so a large catalog fills a plan faster than people expect. Whatever app you use, have a native speaker check the checkout, the main product pages and your returns policy. Machine translation there costs more in lost sales than a proofread costs.

Local payment methods and card fees

Shoppers buy more readily with the payment method they use at home: iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, Afterpay in Australia and the US, Clearpay in the UK. Through Shopify Payments, local methods are switched on in Settings > Payments, and their rates vary by country, so check yours there.

Cards issued abroad usually cost more to process than domestic ones. Shopify's Markets pricing page shows a variable blended processing rate of 3.9% per transaction for international sales, which varies by plan, card type and where the card was issued.

A worked example

The same store on Managed Markets would pay $350 in the Managed Markets fee instead of the duty fee, with conversion built into buyer prices. Price your international products with these percentages in mind. The profit margin calculator shows what's left once you add them, and the fees calculator covers the domestic side.

By country

• US: 1.5% currency conversion, the lowest rate Shopify lists. Sales tax rules at home don't change when you add markets abroad.
• UK: 2% conversion. Selling into the EU, look at the EU's IOSS scheme for VAT on low-value parcels.
• EU and the Netherlands: 2% conversion when a shopper pays in another currency. Orders between EU countries carry no duty fee. iDEAL and Bancontact matter more than a translated blog.
• Australia: 2% conversion. If you buy Australia Post or other labels in Shopify, check the service supports DDP before you turn on duties at checkout.

Ways to spend less

1. Start with your two or three biggest countries, not twenty. Turn on others when the data shows demand.
2. Use Translate & Adapt first and pay for a translation app only when you need more languages.
3. Turn on duties at checkout only for countries where duties apply and parcels get refused.
4. Cut return rates with clear size guides and delivery times, since conversion fees aren't refunded.

Next steps

1. Check your analytics for which countries already visit and buy.
2. Price the fees above against your margin for each of those countries.
3. Set up one market, test a real order in the local currency and check the payout.

If you want a second pair of eyes before you launch abroad, send me your store for a free review. Store development work starts from $300, and any international setup gets a fixed quote.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Shopify pricing, Shopify
2. Shopify Markets pricing, Shopify
3. Fees and costs, Shopify Help Center
4. Collecting duties and import taxes at checkout, Shopify Help Center
5. Translate & Adapt, Shopify App Store
6. Weglot, Shopify App Store

Related services and work

Written by Ashraf Siddik

I'm a Shopify developer and CRO specialist. I have built and improved Shopify stores since 2018, completed more than 1,000 projects, and hold a 4.96 average rating across 719 client reviews.

About me · Client reviews