Setting up Managed Markets
After you upgrade to Managed Markets, you need to prepare and set up your store for your international customers. Before you start selling your products in international markets, consider reviewing the following actions to prepare your store.
On this page
- Get your globally unique identifier (GUID) for Managed Markets
- Set up shipping
- Revising your shipping rates and product prices
- Translating and localizing your store's content
- Updating your store's shipping policies and FAQs
- Complying with consumer privacy rules
- Creating markets for individual countries
- Printing shipping Labels
- Marketing your main international markets
Get your globally unique identifier (GUID) for Managed Markets
If you want to fulfill your Managed Markets order using third-party fulfillment services, such as Flexport, then you need to copy the GUID from your Shopify admin, and then complete the setup directly with your fulfillment service. Your ID for Managed Markets is the same as your Managed Markets GUID.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > International.
- Click Preferences.
- In the Order fulfillment section, click the copy icon next to your GUID.
After you get your Managed Markets GUID, you need to complete the setup with one of the supported fulfillment services.
A GUID isn't the same thing as a merchant ID, a merchant account ID, or a merchant card processor account. If you need to provide one of these identifiers to a third party, then you can use your store ID instead. To get your store ID, contact Shopify Support.
Set up shipping
Before you start shipping with Managed Markets, refer to the list of available carriers, download a shipping rate table, and set up your flat and carrier-calculated rates for shipping.
Revising your shipping rates and product prices
Depending on your business goals, consider revising your shipping rates or product prices:
- If you’re focusing on international business growth, then consider charging less for shipping than your actual shipping label cost. You can do this by creating reduced flat shipping rates or free shipping rates.
- If you’re focusing on keeping your profit margin, then consider one of the following options:
- pass the entire cost of the shipping label to your customers in the form of your shipping rates using flat rates or carrier-calculated rates
- increase your product price for international markets while keeping your shipping rates low
If you already have an existing international customer base, then consider how much you're charging your customers for shipping now.
Translating and localizing your store's content
Consider localizing and translating your store's content to help you grow sales in countries where English isn't the main language. You can start by translating your store to the most used languages in your main international markets.
You can install the Shopify Translate & Adapt app to your store to add languages and manage custom content for your Shopify store. Learn more about localization and translation.
You can also create custom content for your most important international markets to appeal to the regional and cultural aspects of each market.
Updating your store's shipping policies and FAQs
Consider updating your store's shipping policies and FAQs, so that your customers know how international shipping works on your online store.
You can add the following information to the relevant pages or policies of your online store:
- a list of countries where you ship products to
- a notice informing your customers that duties and taxes are calculated at checkout, and that they don't have to pay them upon delivery
- a notice informing your customers that DHL and UPS shipping services with tracking numbers are used to ship and deliver products
- an indication that customers can use their own local currency and a local payment method to pay for your products
Complying with consumer privacy rules
Managed Markets and Global-e are GDPR compliant with the information that's displayed at your checkout. Your customers agree to Global-e's privacy policy when they place an order at your checkout.
However, you're responsible for the data that you have access to when your customers purchase from your online store. If you're selling to customers in the European Union and the United Kingdom, then you need to ensure GDPR compliance with opt-in cookie tracking.
Consider installing a third-party opt-in cookie tracking app to comply with the United Kingdom and European Union consumer privacy rules.
Creating markets for individual countries
With Managed Markets you can sell to more than 150 countries, but they're all part of one large multi-country market.
Consider creating markets for individual countries that are the most important for your business. For each individual market, a subfolder is created that offers SEO benefits for your store.
Printing shipping Labels
Make sure that you and your staff are familiar with the process on how to fulfill orders and print shipping labels directly in Shopify.
If you're using a third-party fulfillment partner to fulfill your orders, then let them know that all new international orders will have shipping labels and customs documentation through Managed Markets.
Marketing your main international markets
Consider investing in marketing campaigns for your main international markets to build a customer base and drive international sales. Read this case study on how Managed Markets supercharged WOLFpak’s international expansion efforts.