Shopify’s cross-border service (formerly Markets Pro, now Managed Markets) is unpredictably restricting products, cutting international catalog visibility by about half for some stores. Identical items can be treated differently (e.g., same product, different color), and restrictions vary across stores.
Key patterns and examples:
Items with batteries are blocked by Shopify even when certain countries (e.g., Mexico) allow them. Users selling music (vinyl/CDs) see random restrictions that sometimes lift after a few days, suggesting automated keyword or content triggers.
Support advised there is no re-evaluation/appeal for restricted items; suggested disabling Markets Pro to ship internationally. A stated 48–72 hour review window appears inconsistent, and pre-creating/hidden items hasn’t reliably helped.
Recent update impact:
Rebrand to Managed Markets reduced transparency: previously showed which products and countries were restricted; now merchants only see a generic “Publishing error in International.”
Workaround to identify affected items: in Products, use Filter > Publishing Error > Markets > International.
Requested changes and status:
Merchants want a formal process to request review/appeal of restrictions. No confirmed solutions; issues persist for months for some. Discussion remains unresolved.
Summarized with AI on December 16.
AI used: gpt-5.
US based shop, experiencing partial restrictions on some products - however, there are identical products that are not restricted, the only difference is the color. Have 3 shopify stores selling identical items, each store has different products being restricted - seems random. This is reducing items available to international customers by about half.
Contacted support, this is what they said “So, it does look like there is no re-evaluation for restricted items within Markets Pro at the moment. Once they have been restricted, it cannot be removed. At the moment, the best workaround would be to disable Markets Pro so you can ship your products internationally. I can absolutely submit feedback about this to our developers!”
If you are not seeing sales, or certain items are not selling internationally, check your “restricted by Markets Pro” tab in Markets > International > Products & Pricing
There should be a process to request evaluation of restricted products.
Mine are restricted because Shopify says you can’t ship anything with a battery. Really?? However, this is not even restricted by Mexico itself. So shopify is creating regulations that go beyond the requirements of the countries/markets we want to sell into. Looks like we will have to kill markets pro. Sad.
We are having similar issues, we have to set up new products daily and we sell vinyl records and CDs and most publish in all markets and then randomly some become restricted, they usually become unrestricted within a few days, but that hurts us. Support says all products go into review for 48-72 hours, but that is not true, its like 1 out of every 10. I think because we are selling music, words of a song title in the description trigger something. They said to make the items a week in advance and make them active and remove them from all collections and menu items so they can be reviewed in advance but that does not work for us.
FYI - With the new update to Markets Pro, now called Managed Markets, there is even less information regarding restricted products. They used to tell you which products and in countries they were restricted, now, all you can do is see which products have a “Publishing error in International”, but no way to resolve this on your own.
While there is little you can do as a shop owner, if you want to see which products have a “Publishing error in International”, go to your Products, click the
“search and filter” button (or just hit the F key) and add filter “Publishing Error” > Markets > International
Any solutions per chance? I had nearly identical circumstances yet no resolution for over 6 months now. Can’t get any answers on why restrictions are even made, but for sure about half the products banned match other products they allow, just a different color. Yeesh