Going international on 2 continents (by 2 separate business units) under one domain

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1

Hi Shopify Community!

We are planning to set up a shopify shop that is sells in the US and in EU. We will do the operations by 2 different business units. Therefore, we have several requirements and we are not sure if Shopify can come up to them:

  1. We need to have different product availability in different markets. Is this possible?

  2. Prices should be in local currency. Is this possible?

  3. On each continent operations are done by different business units that have each their own bank accounts and acocunting. Is it possible to use different PayPal accounts or credit card payment providers depeding on the location, users are buying from?

  4. We would like to connect Shopify directly with our ERP. However, we run 2 different ERPs in US and in EU. Is it possible to connect both to Shopify?

  5. Localized content: depending on the continent buyers come from they should see different content eg. T&Cs or our team. So not only translations, but also different content e.g. different team members or structure of T&Cs. Is this possible?

  6. Depending on the origin of buyers an order should be handed over to different fullfillment partners. Is this possible?

Would be awesome if someone knows answers to these questions or an information ressource, where we could find them.

Best

DJ

2

Hi DJ,

This sounds like an interesting challenge. I’m fairly certain #1 and #2 are possible - #1 through warehouse-level inventory management and #2 through an app like Multi Country Pricing. The others, especially the ERP (multiple) related question, need a deeper dive. Feel free to connect with me (sudheer@mlveda.com) and my colleague Amit (amit@mlveda.com) offline if you’d like - we’d be glad to take a closer look.

Thanks,

Sudheer

3

Dear Dj,

I don’t have answers for you, but I share the question with regard to point number 3. Might i ask if you have been able to get an answer for that question?

Thanks

4

Hi, DJ

We have configured stores with similar needs. The best solution is to build a mirror store. Technically, it is two stores connected by a redirection app (it operates with geolocation app based on IP) but you keep one domain name (EU mirror store will have a separate second level domain name like eu.store.com, but your client does not really see it) . Redirection is seamless and it happens at the moment when the client visits the store, so If the client comes with EU IP he/she lands on the EU store. There is a number of redirection solutions - we can advise on that. This architecture is not complicated and it would only cost you another Shopify license (it varies depending on the needs, stating from 30 USD) and a redirection app (5-10 USD monthly). If you have a more advanced Shopify plan for your US store you still can use basic Shopify or Shopify plan for the redirection store.

Now to practical questions:

  1. Yes , you will have 2 stores and two separate inventories.

  2. Yes (you use standard rules for Shopify markets on local currencies)

  3. Yes you can have that , since you have technically two stores with two separate checkouts and payments solutions. You can connect specific EU payment solutions (Klarna, etc.) for EU and entirely separate solutions for US.

  4. Two stores - two ERPs , that is no problem.

  5. You can manage two separate localized content and SEO approaches. Both your teams will be handling their own store and will not be in way of each other.

  6. Connected fulfillment solutions and shipping rates will also be done separately on store level so they can be fully localized.

With such a setting you also may have other possibilities:

  • your taxation solutions for US and UK/EU can be separate (this is our core business and here we can provide you with all required registrations for EU VAT special schemes and for UK VAT). You can keep your US taxation handling with US solutions and EU/UK done by another app.

  • you keep two fully separate accounting;

  • you can use different pricing models (tax inclusive for EU/UK - as customary here, and tax exclusive in the US).

Do get in touch with us and we can help you set up the store free of charge if you take our EU abd UK VAT compliance solution , info@easproject.com. And do visit us on www.easproject.com , there you can schedule a meeting with us to discuss your VAT compliance needs.

Have a nice day

Ross

5

Hi Evomad,

I am afraid that payment solution localization is only available on the payment solution level , not on Shopify level. So if you are looking for that you perhaps need to check within third party solution providers and their localization principles.

As for Shopify , though Shopify adjusts the scope of payment services available via Shopify payments but this localization is connected to the store location , not to the buyer location.

It would be interesting if you could share your exploits here :slightly_smiling_face:

Have a nice day

Ross

6

Hello Ross,

Thanks for the explanations so far. Just to detail our situation a little more.

We are looking to have one global platform, with multiple markets. For now, those would be Europe/Rest of World and USA.

We want to work with subdirectories /us, /countriesXYZ, because we believe this would be the best in order not to have two domains competing against each other in SEO. (ie platformusa.com and platform.com)

And we are operating with two legal entities, one for Europe/ROW and one for the USA.
So, ideally we want the sales in the USA to be booked on the US-corporation.
We are okay with having different payment solutions for both geographic areas.

Would your solution of having two stores work here? (Shopify plus is too high a cost for us)

Or do we still get duplication/competition with SEO? Perhaps the redirection app takes care of that, my knowledge only goes so far.

I understand that there are apps/solutions for managing the mostly identical content for the two stores then. Which of course is a cost and time consideration.

I am adding here the other answer I received, would you care to shine a light on that too.

Much appreciated.

Evert

Hi Evert,

The solution provided by me still applies to the case mentioned by you. However there are a some downsides to it because of Shopify’s limitations:

  1. You will not be able to use Shopify Payments for both US and ROW. You will be able to use it only for one of the two. Due to this, you will be levied a 2% transaction fee fee by Shopify for all orders that you receive in the other. I assume the US will be the primary market where you sell, so Shopify Payments will remain connected to your USA account and you will need to use a separate payment gateway for ROW and pay a 2% transaction fee to shopify for Orders in ROW.

  2. You will not be able to use the multi currency checkout solution of Shopify as only Shopify Payments supports that feature as of now. Hence, all US and ROW orders need to be processed in USD ( again assuming USA will be the primary market where you sell )

In case you still want to keep the capability to collect payments in multiple currencies, you will need to connect Shopify Payment to your Netherlands account and then you will need to pay a 2% transaction fee for all US orders as US orders will be processed by another payment gateway.

Let me know if you have any other queries. I can provide consultation to you for this on a chargeable basis.

Kind Regards,
Amit Goyal
CTO, MLVeda

On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 3:42 PM Evert van Oosterum > wrote:
Hello Amit, thank you for the answer. Forgive for following up, what we are looking for is to have

  • one US based corporation which will receive the money generated through the global online platform, for US orders, connected to a US bank account

And

  • one EU/ROW , corporation based in the Netherlands with a Dutch bank account and receiving the money for all orders generated out of the US market.

So we want to have 2 different bank accounts, in different markets.

Does your answer apply for this scenario as well, or would you have new input for me?

Appreciate your help,

Best regards,

Evert
Verstuurd vanaf mijn iPhone

Op 13 apr. 2023 om 11:38 heeft Amit Goyal > het volgende geschreven:

Hi Evert,

A potential solution to number 3 would be that you enable all the payment gateways for all the countries that you are willing to sell to on your store in Shopify. Once the payment gateways are enabled, you can hide them based on the country from which a customer is trying to checkout using one of these two apps from the apps store. https://apps.shopify.com/hidepay and https://apps.shopify.com/payfy-conditional-payments. Let me know a detailed use case that you have if this does not solve the requirement that you have.

Kind Regards,
Amit Goyal
CTO, MLVeda

7

Hi Evomad,

Redirection app does not have anything to do with SEO (at least not directly :)). When it comes to SEO and two stores competing with each other , I believe, it is possible to work around that using shopify’s standard SEO functionality and by not publishing one of the stores in any third party SEO solutions that you may use.

As for the payment solutions - two stores, two legal entities and two Shopify payments - that is not an issue. And both stores will be able to use multicurrency.

You have to concern yourself also with your logistics solutions. Are you going to fulfil from within EU for your Dutch store? Or all shipments will be coming from outside EU?

You can reach me directly via info@easproject.com , input subject “Att: Ross”

8

Hi,

We are looking to implement the solution requested in this thread.

Based on your response, I need clarification on how it resolves the request in this thread.

What you are describing here is the exact solution that we and the Dj_pich already have - two stores, with legal entity per store.

While the request is to have one store operating under two legal entities which Shopify doesn’t currently support.

Thanks,

Ilya

9

HI Ilya ,

There were so many items discussed here . Can you be more specific about your particular requirements and situation . You can write directly to my e-mail info@easproject.com