Managing orders and returns in different geographical markets on Shopify?

Shopify Discussion
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@coleatkinson @Andrew_8

Dear Shopify Markets Staff, I have several questions about using Shopify Markets. For context, we are currently running 3 Shopify stores in US, NZ and Australia. We have the same products across all 3 stores. The only difference is currencies and shipping policy. Additionally, each geography is fulfilled by a local 3rd party shipper.

Therefore, if I consolidate the 3 stores into 1 Shopify store with the primary market of US and 2 expansion markets for NZ and Australia respectively:

  1. Is there a way I can tag customer orders so that my local 3rd party shippers know that a particular order is for them to fulfil, and not others? For example, if an order is placed by a customer in Australia, I want the Australian 3rd party shipper to be able to identify that the order is for them to fulfil. And, by the same token, I want the US 3rd party shipper to know that they do NOT have to fulfil the Australian customer order.

  2. One of the restrictions of Shopify Markets is that it doesn’t support subscriptions (Requirements and considerations for using Shopify Markets Pro · Shopify Help Center). Is that still the case? And, why can’t I use a 3rd party plug-in like ReCharge to manage Subscriptions?

  3. Another restriction is that Shopify Markets doesn’t support returns (Requirements and considerations for using Shopify Markets Pro · Shopify Help Center). What does this mean? Surely, if a customer in Australia wants to return an order, I can ask my local 3rd party shipper to issue a return shipping label which I email to the customer, and then I can then issue the customer a return on Shopify? Please confirm if this is possible.

  4. For local fulfilment in one of my international markets, can I use a 3rd party shipper of my own choosing or do I have to use one of the approved Shopify 3rd party shippers?

Thanks!

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Hi @therealAYB ,

If each of the 3PL’s is set up as a location, you can manually or automatically assign the location based on advanced rules such as shipping country, shipping method, etc. Please take a look at Order Fulfillment Guru. You can set it up in 5 minutes.

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Thanks @ronald_g . That makes sense. And, do you have any idea of whether issue 2 (subscription orders) and issue 3 (returns) are possible using Shopify Markets?

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Hi @therealAYB - answers to your questions below:

  1. Subscriptions. I think you are looking at the Markets Pro documentation there. You can absolutely sell subscriptions with Shopify Markets. Plug ins like ReCharge support multiple currencies in a limited capacity (we are working with them on this), so it would be best to reach out to those providers to see what they support.

  2. Yes, returns are definitely possible, as you point out. (again I think you were referencing the Markets Pro documentation).

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Awesome thank you so much @coleatkinson - yes, I find the similarity in names between Markets and Markets Pro a little confusing sometimes so appreciate your response!