Creating duplicate store or new domain

[ajmarriage]

Hi there, hoping for a little help with our decision wether to create a new store or use an international domain (or if that is initial premise is flawed and that creating an international domain is the same as creating a new Shopify store...)

We are an established store based in the UK. However we do have a sizeable amount of international sales coming primarily from the US.

The non-UK experience is powered by Global-e and we would like to move away from this for US traffic.

We would like to have a US store e.g. us.our-site.com that we can tailor as needed and importantly use Shopifys native checkout experience.

We would want the US store to have the same products and not having to merchandise them separately would be ideal.

In the longer term that it would be good to have US specific copy or creative for US traffic.

[Trevor]

@ajmarriage 

Great question! 

You'll need to create a second Shopify store in order to utilize the international subdomain (us.our-site.com). By adding it to your current store, it would only result in your customers being led to the same website, where you're charging in GBP.

By creating a second store you'll have the ability to have a separate admin for your products, inventory, and sell directly in USD. If it is an exact duplicate of your original store then you'll be eligible for our multistore discount. The way the discount works is that store A would subscribe to either our Shopify plan ($79) or our Advanced plan ($299). From there, every store after would subscribe to the plan directly beneath it (i.e If you select the $299 plan for store "A" then every store thereafter would be $79/month) while still receiving the features of the plan Store A is subscribed to. To get this setup, would require an escalation to our billing department, so if you do go this route, let us know and we'd be happy to get that looked after. 

[ajmarriage]

I've read about using international domains as a feature on Shopify - would that not be applicable?

[ajmarriage]

Say we have two solutions:

1. International domains with multiple subdomains on the same account

2. Separate stores with multiple accounts

What would the process be like of moving each solution over the Shopify Plus in the future?

[Trevor]

@ajmarriage 

Apologies. I didn't see your second question before responding. 

I wouldn't be able to give specific information on how these features would work with Shopify Plus as that question would be better answered by one of our Plus Sales advisors. You're welcome to submit a request form through our landing page here by clicking "Let's talk".

[Trevor]

@ajmarriage 

Ah, yes! International Domains. 

This feature would be applicable if: 

• You are on the "Shopify" ($79/month) plan or higher 
• Using Shopify Payments and our multi-currency feature

Some things to be mindful of if you used International Domains: 

• International domains do not improve or change the way we handle tax/VAT inclusive or exclusive pricing
  
• All currencies are technically available on every domain (although removing selectors can reduce the discoverability of non-default currencies). 
  
• Domains do not translate your theme or content for you - you will still need to manage that within an app.
• International domains do not touch things like localized content, inventory, or product catalogues i.e. you cannot only offer product x to some countries and then product y to other countries.
• Shopping feeds, such as Google Shopping, are only compatible with single domains and currencies. You can configure advertising campaigns with the relevant URLs manually, but cannot account for multiple currencies in these feeds.

Let me know if you have any questions! 

[Arron123]

Do you know if the multi store discount is still available if you have an exact duplicate of your original store? I've just had an online chat with a Shopify agent and they tell me they can't find any reference to it.

[freya0328]

Have you found a solution?