International ecommerce has become standard for many UK retailers — selling to EU, US, and global customers. WooCommerce handles international selling through a combination of WPML (for translated content), Aelia Currency Switcher (for multi-currency), and shipping zone configuration. Shopify handles this through Shopify Markets — a unified international commerce platform. The migration is an opportunity to rethink and simplify your international setup.

Shopify Markets overview

Shopify Markets (available on all plans, with more features on Shopify and above) consolidates international selling:

Multi-currency: Automatic currency conversion at checkout for customers in different countries. Payouts in your home currency (GBP for UK). Available on Shopify Payments.
Domain/subpath localisation: Different URLs for different markets (/en-us/, /fr/, /de/) with localised content, pricing, and checkout.
Local payment methods: Shopify Payments supports country-specific payment methods in some markets (iDEAL in Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, etc.)
Duties and import taxes: Shopify Markets can calculate and collect duties at checkout (Shopify's Duties and Import Taxes feature — available on Advanced and Plus plans).

Post-Brexit EU selling

UK retailers selling to EU customers face customs and VAT complexity since Brexit:

EU VAT OSS (One Stop Shop): If your EU sales exceed €10,000/year, you must charge and remit VAT in each EU customer's country. OSS registration allows filing a single quarterly return. If you don't register, customers may face import VAT charges on delivery.
IOSS (Import One Stop Shop): For orders under €150, IOSS allows you to collect and remit EU VAT at checkout so customers don't pay import VAT on delivery. Improves delivery experience significantly.
Customs documentation: CN22/CN23 customs forms required for all non-EU shipments. Shopify's shipping label integration (Shopify Shipping, EasyPost, Shippo) can automate this.
HS codes: Harmonised System tariff codes on products help customs clearance. Shopify allows setting HS codes per product (Products → edit → Shipping section → Customs information).

product.metafields.customs.hs_code = "6104.43.0010"        // women's knitwear
product.metafields.customs.country_of_origin = "GB"
product.metafields.customs.weight_kg = "0.35"              // required for customs

Multi-currency configuration

Shopify Payments enables multi-currency automatically once Shopify Markets is configured:

Prices convert at current exchange rates with an optional markup (e.g. add 2% to account for exchange rate fluctuation)
Currency rounding rules can be configured (e.g. round EUR prices to .99)
Fixed market prices: override automatic conversion with manually set prices per currency if you want consistent pricing (e.g. USD $29.99 rather than the £23.50 converted equivalent)
Currency shown to customer based on their browser/location — they can manually switch via a currency selector in the store

Replacing WooCommerce international plugins

WooCommerce plugin	Shopify equivalent
WPML WooCommerce Multilingual	Shopify Markets + Translate & Adapt app (Shopify's native, free)
Aelia Currency Switcher	Shopify Markets + Shopify Payments multi-currency
WooCommerce EU VAT Compliance	Shopify Markets duties/tax + IOSS configuration
WooCommerce Tax (TaxJar, Avalara)	Shopify Tax (native, US sales tax) or TaxJar/Avalara Shopify apps
WooCommerce Shipping plugins	Shopify Shipping or third-party carrier apps (Shippo, EasyPost)

Content localisation on Shopify

Shopify Markets supports content localisation without WPML:

Translate & Adapt app (by Shopify, free): translate product titles, descriptions, and collections into other languages
AI-assisted translation: Shopify's translation app can auto-translate content as a starting point for human review
Currency, date format, and address format adapt automatically per market
SEO: hreflang tags are added automatically for different language/region variants

Post-migration international selling checklist

Shopify Markets configured for target international markets
Multi-currency enabled (requires Shopify Payments)
EU selling: OSS or IOSS VAT registration decided and configured
HS codes added to products that ship internationally
Country of origin set on all internationally-shipped products
International shipping rates: carrier-calculated or flat rates per market
Duties and import taxes: collected at checkout or shipped DDP/DDU (with clear communication)
Content translated: at minimum, product titles and checkout for top international markets
Currency rounding rules configured for clean price display

Shopify Markets and international selling after migrating from WooCommerce (2026)