European Expansion | Shopify Markets, VAT & Local Checkout

New markets rarely fail on the idea. They fail on the details: a translation nobody reviewed, prices that read wrong in the local currency, VAT set up incorrectly, a checkout missing the payment method people in that country actually trust. I open markets one at a time, on a single store wherever that works.

What I set up, per market

• Market structure — subfolder, subdomain or country domain, chosen deliberately

• Local currency through Shopify Payments, with prices reviewed so they read right in it

• Translate & Adapt with translated URLs and SEO fields, plus human review of what customers actually read

• International SEO: hreflang generated and checked, not assumed

• VAT per country, OSS and IOSS, duties and import taxes with HS codes and country of origin

• Local carriers and the payment methods that market expects at checkout

Where this comes from
Most of the stores I work on already sell across borders. Continental Lab runs in English, French and Portuguese — euros across Europe, US dollars for North America, Australia and Japan. Aniball sells across Europe from its own European store.

Straight talk
I set the store up so the numbers it produces are correct; the filing itself stays with your accountant. And I start with which market is worth opening next, based on your own order and traffic data — not with switching on every country Shopify offers.