Shopify Markets vs. Global-e: Choosing the Right Solution For Your Cross-Border Ecommerce Business

Expanding an ecommerce business internationally – whilst an incredible opportunity to broaden reach and accelerate growth – is not without its challenges. Getting to grips with aspects such as foreign regulations, international taxes and overseas fulfilment can be a minefield for retailers.

However, there are a range of solutions on the market designed to help businesses successfully navigate the complexities of cross-border ecommerce.

For brands using Shopify, two of the most prominent solutions available are Shopify Markets* and Global-e. Each is designed to enhance international sales and provide better end-to-end experiences for retailers and consumers alike.

But which tool is right for your business?

This article will compare Shopify Markets vs. Global-e, explore each platform’s capabilities, and examine the factors that should be considered when choosing a solution.

Use the links below to navigate the article:

• Shopify Markets
• Shopify Markets Pro
• Global-e
• Which cross-border solution is right for your ecommerce business?
• Conclusion

*Note that Shopify Markets has been renamed Shopify International, and Shopify Markets Pro renamed Shopify Managed Markets, but for the purpose of this article, we will refer to Shopify Markets and Shopify Markets Pro throughout.

Shopify Markets (Shopify International)

Integrated within the Shopify platform, and available to retailers worldwide on Basic, Shopify, Advanced and Plus plans, Shopify Markets is designed to simplify international selling.

This self-managed solution allows brands to manage global operations from a single Shopify store, offering rapid expansion into new markets with its free, out-of-the-box localisation features.

Shopify Markets is a ‘native’ solution, which means that it can be accessed by all Shopify customers from within their Shopify admin dashboard. 

Features of Shopify Markets

Notable features of Shopify Markets include:

• Localised shopping experiences – Retailers can boost trust and drive conversions by providing customers with a familiar, relevant experience, whatever their location. For example, Markets automatically converts prices into local currencies, translates store content into multiple languages, and displays local preferred payment methods at checkout. Plus, you can customise the content of your storefront to account for regional and cultural nuances.

• Global SEO optimisation – Optimise your store per market, improving visibility and ranking across international search engines. Shopify Markets allows you to set up custom domains or subfolders for a market to create a localised version of your store – and automatically redirect visitors to the right one for their location.

• Centralised dashboard – Simplify operations and increase efficiency with a single admin dashboard to oversee all international markets. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to set up and manage global selling.

• Duties and taxes management – For Advanced and Plus users, Shopify Markets calculates and collects estimated duties and import taxes at checkout, ensuring transparency for customers.

• Integrated B2B – You can build a global wholesale business from your admin with Shopify Markets. Store owners on Plus plans can customise their store theme for different B2B markets from a single store, as well as create unique versions of their product catalogue for multiple B2B markets, all from the Markets interface.

• Consolidated reporting – Shopify Markets allows you to easily track performance across regions. This data can help you better understand your global customers and make informed decisions about your cross-border commerce strategy over time.

Whilst Markets is an accessible solution for Shopify brands looking to expand globally, it should be noted that responsibility for the entire international selling process – beyond frontend localisation – lies with retailers.

How much does Shopify Markets cost?

Whilst there is no monthly or annual fee for using Shopify Markets, retailers are charged a percentage fee per international transaction, covering payment processing and currency conversion. You can read more about pricing here.

Also note that the number of markets you can create depends on your Shopify plan.

Shopify Markets case study: Stubble & Co.

The features of Shopify Markets have been designed to streamline international selling for retailers – empowering them to expand globally whilst being efficient with time and budget.

This was evident in our recent work with high-growth British B Corp. As a startup selling across the EU, this was a brand seeking to reduce the administrative burden of cross-border commerce and make global selling easier for its team to manage.

After we provided tailored consultation around the correct setup of Shopify Markets for the brand’s international sales requirements, the client implemented our recommendations and soon began to see a reduction in the amount of time and resources required for global selling.

Shopify Markets Pro (Shopify Managed Markets)

For select retailers in the US**, an advanced version of Markets is available. Markets Pro, (now named Managed Markets), is a plug-and-play solution that expands the capabilities of Shopify Markets.

Merchant of Record service

Markets Pro combines Shopify’s international sales features with built-in operational functionality, namely a Merchant of Record (MoR) service. This is powered by Global-e, which acts as the legal entity responsible for selling products to a customer and adhering to any local regulations.

In practice, this means that Global-e acts as a silent reseller between you and your international customers. It manages the complexities of selling to other countries or regions on your behalf, including things like:

• accepting local methods of payment;
• exclusive and affordable shipping rates;
• duties and import tax;
• remitting tax to local authorities; and
• customs documentation and pre-clearance.

As a result, retailers can start selling into new international markets quickly, without having to worry about navigating the most stressful and time-consuming compliance issues. This allows businesses to accelerate growth whilst keeping their workload and overheads low.

Other Markets Pro features

As well as providing a MoR service, Markets Pro also includes features such as:

• Extended suite of payment methods – Retailers can offer more payment options at checkout, providing an enhanced customer experience and boosting the chance of conversion.

• Fraud protection – Every order on Markets Pro is automatically reviewed and given chargeback protection. This ensures your business remains protected when fraud occurs on international orders.

• Restrictions management – Brands can adjust their product catalogue for each market to automatically remove items with import restrictions.

• Consistent currency conversion rate for refunds – Exchange rates are locked in for 30 days to help brands avoid the financial risk of currency fluctuations or volatility on refunds.

• Single dashboard – Crucially, Markets Pro keeps everything inside your Shopify Admin, allowing for self-managed cross-border selling.

**Note that Markets Pro is set to launch in more regions outside the US in due course. In particular, we anticipate that Shopify Markets Pro / Managed Markets will be launched in Europe in 2025. 

Markets Pro pricing

Much like Shopify Markets, Markets Pro doesn’t have a monthly fee. Instead, a 6.5% payment processing fee and 2.5% currency conversion fee are charged on a per-transaction basis. They are automatically debited from each international sale made through Shopify.

Global-e

For businesses looking for a fully-managed, end-to-end global ecommerce solution, including all the turnkey functionality of Markets Pro, as well as additional features and capabilities and dedicated expert support, a direct integration with Global-e’s native Shopify solution is a compelling proposition.

It is a robust end-to-end global ecommerce solution designed to make international online retail as easy as domestic ecommerce, covering all aspects of global online trading.

There is sometimes a misconception that Global-e and Markets Pro are the same thing. Whilst Global-e powers Markets Pro, there are a number of reasons why retailers might want to work with Global-e directly.

Features of Global-e

Going well beyond storefront localisation, Global-e takes a holistic and custom approach to global online selling, with features such as:

• Support for over 200 markets – Retailers can access a huge global audience in an instant, through a single integration process, unlocking potential for rapid international growth.

• Extensive localisation – Global-e’s advanced localisation capabilities enable retailers and brands to offer customers across the world an optimal shopping experience that is tailored to local market preferences and aligned to their business strategy and goals. Through Global-e’s native Shopify integration, you can incorporate location-specific messaging throughout the buying journey and let international shoppers browse and buy in their local currency, with over 100 currencies supported. Over 130 payment methods, including popular and alternative options, are supported and displayed per market relevancy. Taxes and duties are calculated and presented according to market best practices, providing shoppers with guaranteed final cost of purchase to prevent unexpected add-ons upon delivery.

• Fully-managed service – Global-e manages all aspects of global ecommerce trading, allowing your team to focus on product and brand development. This is different to Shopify Markets, where the onus is on retailers to manage the full sales process.

• Merchant of record – As previously mentioned, Global-e assumes legal responsibility for selling your products in each market. This removes the complex bureaucracy typically involved with international ecommerce, ensuring hassle-free compliance with the constantly changing local tax and import regulations across worldwide markets. Brands effectively become clients of Global-e, receiving a single invoice for consolidated international sales in their local currency, turning all international transactions into domestic ones.

• Access to local market insights and best practices – Brands can leverage Global-e’s wealth of proprietary data-backed insights and BI models, drawn from billions of transactions made through the Global-e platform, across markets and verticals, to create an optimal market-by-market proposition (e.g. local pricing strategy and tailored shipping proposition). This powerful market intelligence empowers informed decision-making and enables retailers to maximise sales and profitability.

• Hands-on guidance and expertise – Users have access to dedicated customer success management led by global ecommerce specialists for proactively boosting international sales. Global-e’s success managers work closely with brands, providing ongoing support as well as expert guidance and best practice recommendations to support key decision making. This is a key point-of-difference between Shopify Markets Pro and Global-e. Global ecommerce is inherently complex, and so having access to local market insights and dedicated, native-speaking account management resources is a compelling proposition.

• Advanced outbound and inbound logistics, with extensive carrier options – Brands can leverage Global-e’s extensive network of shipping providers and enjoy reduced rates across multiple shipping services. Global logistics are handled by Global-e, reducing the overhead and eliminating the complexity for the brand.

• Robust fraud protection – Global-e offers an additional layer of security to safeguard both retailers and customers against fraud in international payments, eliminating the risk for both brands and customers, while increasing payment acceptance rates.

• Returns portal – Global-e offers its own dedicated returns portal, designed to simplify the international returns process for brands and customers.

All of these features are managed from the dedicated Global-e app and are enabled via a single integration process, managed by the Global-e’s team.

How much does Global-e cost?

Global-e’s pricing is tailored to your brand, based on the volume of orders the app handles for you, and is charged on a per-transaction basis. As you expand and manage more countries with Global-e, you may be able to negotiate more competitive pricing.

Global-e case study: Newcastle United FC

Over 1,000 brands — including the likes of Adidas, Skims, Mattel, Disney Store and Hugo Boss — trust Global-e to power their global online sales. This figure is accelerating quickly, with more and more enterprise retailers and brands choosing to partner with Global-e to simplify global expansion.

Swanky was recently involved in an end-to-end enterprise ecommerce transformation for Premier League football club Newcastle United (NUFC), which involved the implementation of Global-e.

For a football club with a truly global audience, NUFC needed an advanced solution that would allow it to sell online to fans across 100+ international markets through a single storefront. Global-e enables this, whilst maintaining legal and tax compliance in every transaction.

As a result, NUFC fans across the world can enjoy a seamless experience when buying merchandise that is localised and tailored to their country, whilst the club’s ecommerce team can be confident that the operational and legal complexities of selling to multiple destinations worldwide is taken care of.

Which cross-border solution is right for your Shopify business?

Having explored the various features of Shopify Markets and Global-e, we’ll now discuss which types of businesses these tools are most appropriate for.

When considering which solution is the best fit for your business, there are multiple factors to take into consideration, including:

• Business size and growth stage
• Budget
• International sales volume
• Specific international needs (e.g. product regulations, languages, currencies)
• Long-term business goals
• Compatibility with other tools in your tech stack (e.g. CRM platform, email marketing solution, inventory management system)

Here’s a helpful comparison of Shopify Markets vs. Global-e and which types of businesses they are most suited to, taking into account the above factors. We have also included Markets Pro as another point of reference.

Which type of business is Shopify Markets best suited to?

Markets is an excellent starting point for small to midsize brands with low international sales volume and straightforward cross-border requirements.

It offers a cost-effective way to expand internationally for budget-conscious brands.

Markets enables rapid launch and simplified management – perfect for brands looking to test new markets with international ‘proof of concept’ stores.

Which type of business is Shopify Markets Pro best suited to?

Markets Pro is a stepping stone for retailers requiring enhanced capabilities and wider market coverage, but who want to keep operations within the Shopify admin.

It is currently only an option for select brands in the US.

Which type of business is Global-e best suited to?

Global-e is most suitable for medium and large enterprise-level brands, with significant international sales volume.

It is a compelling solution for brands that are poised for significant global growth and want to eliminate the administrative, logistic and operational burden of global ecommerce, whilst protecting internal team resources.

The platform is a popular choice amongst brands seeking a fully-managed, white-glove service. Unlike Markets Pro, consultative services and dedicated account management are available directly from Global-e, including data and analytics consultancy, insights and recommendations. 

Ultimately, choosing between Shopify Markets and Global-e will require a thorough evaluation of your business needs before making a decision.

Shopify Markets vs. Global-e: Conclusion

We hope this comprehensive comparison has provided clarity around the key differences between the scope and functionality of Shopify Markets vs. Global-e, and helped you understand which solution would be the best fit for your business’ needs.

To summarise, Shopify Markets can be a fantastic entry point for straightforward ‘DIY’ global expansion, offering a simplified, centralised solution that protects time and budgets.

For larger businesses with more complex international operations, Global-e offers a much more comprehensive solution. This fully managed platform offers deeper localisation, more advanced regulatory compliance, and dedicated expert guidance and support for retailers as they navigate global ecommerce.

Conquer cross-border ecommerce with Swanky

To successfully navigate global ecommerce expansion, you need the right tools in your Shopify tech stack. At Swanky, we begin every Shopify build or migration with a detailed discovery workshop on the subject of international commerce. During this session, we dig deep into a client’s operational business requirements and develop a clear strategy for global selling – including helping to identify and validate a cross-border commerce solution.

Swanky’s team of Shopify Plus Experts has helped numerous brands take on new international markets and thrive in them. Whether it’s consulting on the best cross-border solution for your business, developing a multilingual SEO strategy to align with your new target audience, or advising on translation on Shopify, we can support your international ecommerce expansion on Shopify.

To discuss any of the themes in this article with our solutions team, please complete our contact form.