Over the last few years, more and more higher volume, complex and global brands have started moving to Shopify - which has challenged the platform to adapt their core product to allow for localising experiences and operations.

Up until very recently, most users of Shopify with significant local market presence and trade would run multiple expansion stores, allowing for easy management of local catalogues, currencies, and team autonomy. This was a perfectly fine route from a function perspective, but it would also come with higher costs for apps, more operational and management overhead, more complexity around reporting and various other compromises.

However, over the last 12-18 months Shopify’s resources have shifted towards improving their core and addressing the trade-offs, via their Markets features and functionality. There has been considerable improvement across the board, including some of the main blockers - leading to many now looking to consolidate separate stores to make their operations more efficient and allow for more streamlined experiences.

Vervaunt’s average Shopify client currently has 2-5 expansion stores (with some exceptions that have far more), which would’ve largely been driven by having separate local business entities, local bank accounts (and not wanting to face high FX fees) and historically local content and trading needs. Most of these clients are now at a point where they’re either moving to a single store or fewer stores (consolidating down) or are planning this as a project for 2026, so we decided to write a detailed guide to managing a consolidation project, the remaining compromises and the general pros and cons of doing this at scale.

Shopify’s Markets offering now centralises international selling with one storefront, following various improvements around catalogue and admin management, multi-entity support, local payouts, improved reporting and much more. This has removed many of the historic reasons for maintaining multiple stores.

Following these changes, the default recommendation is to use one Shopify Plus storefront within Shopify Markets, where possible (there are definitely still some areas where the compromise outweighs the benefit). Consolidation reduces app costs, integration points, QA effort and content duplication, while also speeding up market and language rollouts under a single, centralised governance structure. This has led to the vast majority seeing it as the right approach for their brand and team.

This said, there are still instances where a hybrid approach may be more suited - many of our clients are doing a phased roll-out to allow for some of the restrictions, which could include:

• Legal entities and finance: you may need to settle funds locally, maintain VAT / GST per entity, or ring-fence liability.

• Payments and alternative payment methods (APMs): some regional gateways or payout methods are not supported in multi-entity.

• Subscriptions or regulated catalogues: certain regional subscription systems, product rules or regulatory restrictions cannot be isolated within Markets.

• Deep POS or B2B requirements that result in a separate store being needed.

If any of these exceptions are mandatory, deploy a targeted expansion store for that region while keeping all other regions in Markets.

What is Shopify Markets?

Shopify Markets lets you decide who you sell to, on which domains, in which currencies and languages, and with which prices and duties - all from one admin. You can use subfolders, subdomains, or ccTLDs, and Shopify auto-generates hreflang tags and per-domain sitemaps to protect SEO.

2025 Upgrades: Markets API + catalogue API

The rigid primary market model is being replaced by a configurable backup region that handles pricing, catalogues, and currencies when buyer signals don’t match any market. Contextual pricing now resolves against active markets only, while currency inheritance allows child markets to copy partner settings until you override them. A web presence, whether a domain, subdomain or subfolder, can now be attached to multiple markets, simplifying language and regional architectures without the need to clone sites.

Catalogue-level control

Catalogue can be used to include or exclude products per market, as well as to set fixed prices or percentage adjustments. Storefront search and visibility respect market publishing. B2B catalogues use the same framework and can be assigned per market or company location.

Domains, languages, SEO

Start with subfolders for speed and clarity, or use domains / subdomains where brand or compliance requirements dictate. Submit sitemaps for every domain or subdomain in Search Console - Shopify injects hreflang automatically.

Multi-entity: Payments and APMs

Added in 2025, multi-entity functionality allows one store to map markets to legal entities and onboard Shopify Payments per entity, removing a major blocker that previously required expansion stores for legal separation.

Within Markets, you can enable alternative payment methods (APMs) per legal entity by onboarding Shopify Payments for each entity, mapping markets to those entities, and setting each entity’s default payout currency to the local one. This unlocks domestic APMs such as iDEAL, Bancontact, Sofort, and Interac where relevant. PayPal Express can be offered across entities, while manual payment methods remain available.

There are still limits. Most third-party gateways and subscriptions attach to the primary entity and don’t switch by market. If secondary-entity markets require local settlement with specific APMs, you’ll need to use PayPal, manual methods, or a carve-out expansion store.

Cross-border: The trade-offs

Cross-border commerce refers to selling where you don’t have a local legal entity, bank account or acquirer. Shopify’s multi-entity updates mitigate many of the old trader-offs by allowing one store to map markets to entities and localise payouts and APMs. However, if a large share of your revenue still comes from countries outside your entity footprint, you’ll face a choice.

1) Single store with Markets (no local entity): you retain all the benefits of a single store architecture - one codebase, one app stack and centralised governance. The trade-off is higher non-resident costs (base processing, cross-border uplift and FX) and the need to handle MoR duties such as registrations, remittance, duties, returns and chargebacks. This approach is best when speed and unified merchandising outweigh take-rate and compliance overhead.

2) Expansion store with MoR-as-a-service (e.g. Global-e): this option allows you to offload payments, tax and duty remittance, and fraud management to a provider with an all-in take rate. It reduces FX and cross-border friction and simplifies filings but reintroduces multi-store duplication through extra theming, apps, releases and governance.

If cross-border volume is low to moderate, a single store is generally better for agility and lower operational costs, accepting some payment and FX drag. If cross-border revenue is significant (more than 15-25% of DTC revenue), an MoR expansion store can reduce friction and simplify compliance enough to justify duplication.

Fee examples
(Actual rates are negotiable and vary by volume, mix, and markets.)

• Single Store with Markets

  • ≈ 4.2% + £0.20 per order (1.8% base + 1.0% cross-border + 1.4% FX) + MoR complexities.

• MoR-as-a-service alternative (Global-e)

  • ≈ 5% processing + 2.5% FX all-in. MoR complexities are handled by the Global-e MoR model.

Expansion stores: What they still do well

Separate Plus stores offer maximum regional autonomy. Teams can manage independent catalogues, content, vendors, and release cycles without central constraints. Governance is simpler when you need to ring-fence P&L, tax or compliance, though the trade-off is duplication - each live store requires its own theme, apps and integrations.

Expansion stores still make sense when you need independent release cycles and theming, per-store app licensing and configuration, store-scoped integrations with distinct systems, or local settlement and subscription rules that block multi-entity. They also remain useful for isolating risk, P&L and vendor management by region.

Cost reality

A single storefront architecture using Shopify Markets consolidates app and integration instances and removes duplicate operational effort. Expansion stores appear “free” on paper (one main store, plus nine expansion stores) but total cost scales fast because every store replicates tooling, releases, and ops.

Where the extra cost comes from

• Apps. Per-store subscriptions for all apps (reviews, search/merch, subscriptions, loyalty, CMP, analytics). Many vendors bill per store and per environment.

• Integrations. Separate connectors, credentials, and monitoring for each PIM/ERP/OMS/WMS/3PL/tax engine; more middleware runs and failure points.

• Content & SEO. Duplicated translations, CMS entries, merchandising rules, promotion logic, domain renewals, per-site sitemaps, and hreflang audits.

• Support & training. Store-specific processes, SOPs, permissions, and enablement; higher L1/L2 load.

• Themes & releases. Duplicated theme development and maintenance hours, QA/regression, staging environments, coordinated deploy windows, and rollback/hotfix workflows.

Illustrative savings: three expansion stores vs single store

• Apps: 8 common apps at £200/mo × 3 stores = £57,600/yr.

• Integrations: 3 paid connectors at £400/mo × 3 stores = £43,200/yr (incl. monitoring).

• Theme QA & releases: ~120 hrs/store/yr at £100/hr = £36,000/yr

In this example, 3 expansion storefronts incur £136,800/yr due to duplication of fees. A single storefront using Markets would see direct, quantifiable savings or £91,200/yr by consolidating.

When to consolidate vs. when to expand

Markets is the default when the global catalogue is shared with regional pricing or availability differences, you want faster global change velocity, and your legal structure can use multi-entity with Shopify Payments.

Expansion stores fit when regions run independent P&Ls, tech stacks must be isolated, assortments are materially different, or local regulation or payments are incompatible with today’s multi-entity limits.

A hybrid model keeps most regions on one store with Markets while isolating outliers for legal, payments, logistics, or team reasons. It limits duplication while allowing flexibility for edge-case requirements.

Examples

• EU + UK on Markets; separate US store - the US requires its own subscription system, tax nexus or 3PL stack.

• Global on Markets; regulated carve-out - local hosting, filings, or gateway constraints justify a standalone store.

• D2C on Markets; B2B expansion store - wholesale needs EDI, company-specific catalogues, and different checkout rules
  

Markets vs. expansion stores: The comparison

Licensing: Shopify Markets is included with Plus and supports up to 50 markets within a single store. Expansion stores, on the other hand, include one main store plus nine additional stores under a Plus plan, but each live store requires its own theme and set of apps.

Operating Model: Markets enables centralised governance with the ability to set market-level overrides, while expansion stores offer full regional autonomy with independent admins, QA processes, and release cycles.

Legal Entities: With Markets, multi-entity functionality allows Shopify Payments to be routed per entity, though most third-party gateways and subscriptions still attach to the primary entity. Expansion stores provide clean legal separation, allowing entity-specific gateways and local payouts without shared dependencies.

Domains, Languages, and SEO: Markets supports subfolders, subdomains, or country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs), automatically generating hreflang tags and per-domain sitemaps. Expansion stores typically use separate ccTLDs per store, which requires manual cross-store SEO governance to maintain consistency.

Assortment and Catalogue Management: Markets uses catalogues to include or exclude products and manage contextual pricing at a market level. Expansion stores allow unlimited variation and divergence in product assortment, pricing, and merchandising per store.

Apps: In a Markets setup, you operate one central app stack, configured per market where needed. Expansion stores require separate app licensing, vendor management, and configuration per store.

Subscriptions: Subscriptions within Markets currently attach to the primary entity, limiting regional variation. Expansion stores, by contrast, allow region-specific subscription systems and rules.

Integrations: Markets supports single-store credentials and market-aware data feeds. Expansion stores require store-specific credentials, integrations, and webhooks for each system.

Theming and Releases: Markets operates from one codebase with coordinated releases across all markets. Expansion stores each have their own theme libraries and independent release windows, which can provide flexibility but also add complexity.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Markets offers a lower total cost of ownership by consolidating vendors, integrations, and QA efforts into a single setup. Expansion stores increase costs due to duplicated apps, integrations, and maintenance overheads across multiple storefronts.

The 2025 direction

Shopify is building for a single-storefront future. Markets, the upgraded APIs and multi-entity functionality reduce the need for multi-store in most cases. Treat additional stores as exceptions, with a clear rationale behind each one. You’ll move faster, spend less, and still honor local nuance.

Frequently asked questions

• Do I need Plus for Markets? Markets Plus supports up to 50 markets and enterprise governance.

• Can I set different prices per country? Yes, via catalogues.

• Can I hide products by region? Yes; storefront search respects market publication.

• Is Markets good for SEO? Yes; Shopify creates hreflang and per-domain sitemaps.

• How many expansion stores are included? One main plus nine expansion stores on Plus.