Selling to US from UK, how to make Website look US?

Store Design

Topic summary

UK-based .com store seeks to tailor the storefront for US visitors: automatic currency in USD and measurements in inches instead of mm, plus a reduced product selection for the US market. They’ve configured markets and already receive some US orders.

Key questions:

  • Whether Shopify Advanced is required to “localise storefronts” (currency, units, and catalog by region).
  • How to automatically display USD and inches for US visitors.
  • How to limit the US catalog to a subset of products.
  • Whether leveraging a brother-in-law’s US business/location would be advantageous versus shipping from the UK.

Operational context: strong DHL shipping from the UK to the US with 2–3 day delivery.

Status: no guidance or decisions provided yet; questions remain open.

Summarized with AI on January 6. AI used: gpt-5.
1

I already have a .com website in the UK. We have received some orders from the UK as i have set up markets etc. I want to make it so when you go onto our website in the US it automatically shows everything in Dollars and the sizes are in Inches not MM. Would i have to get Shopify Advanced for me to Localise storefronts? I also want to only sell a few products to the US not the full range. We have a excellent DHL account and we can ship to the US from UK in approx 2-3 days.

I do have a brother inlaw who lives in US and has a business in the US, would i be best using his location?

2

We already receive some orders from US sorry.

3

From what I understand, you don’t need Shopify Advanced just to localise currency for the US. With Shopify Markets, you can already show USD automatically to US visitors and accept payments in dollars.

Measurements (inches vs mm) aren’t handled natively by Shopify though. That usually needs theme logic or content-level handling, since Shopify doesn’t automatically switch units by country.

For selling only a subset of products to the US, Markets does support limiting product availability by region, so you can choose which products are available to US customers.

As for using a US location, if you’re already shipping reliably from the UK in 2–3 days with DHL, many stores continue shipping internationally. A US location can help with returns or tax/logistics later, but it’s not required just to localise the storefront.

4

Hi,

Hope this will help

You don’t need Shopify Advanced to do what you’re describing. Most of this can be handled on Shopify Basic or Shopify Grow with the right setup.

  • At Shopify Markets set up US as a market, assign USD as the currency and enable automatic currency conversion based on customer location
  • Add both units in product descriptions (e.g. “10 in / 254 mm”) Or create US specific product templates where sizing is shown in inches only
  • You can sell only selected products to the US using Markets
  • Shipping from the UK with DHL is perfectly fine if delivery times are clear
  • Using a US address only makes sense if you’re actually operating or fulfilling from there
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5

These features you mentioned are already standard in Shopify. For international payments, I would recommend Stripe integration.

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Thank you so much for all your help. I will continue with what i have and see if i can work it out. Any problems i will come back. Again, thank you.

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Hi @rickysurtees

You do not need Shopify Advanced for this. Shopify Markets on the Basic or Shopify plan is enough to automatically show US visitors prices in USD, limit which products are available in the US, and handle international shipping from the UK. Currency will switch automatically based on location.

Shopify does not automatically convert measurements, so sizes in inches will need to be handled at the theme level by showing a US-specific size chart or converting measurements for US visitors.

You can continue shipping to the US from the UK using DHL with 2–3 day delivery without any issue. Using your brother-in-law’s US business is not necessary at this stage unless you plan high US sales volume, local returns, or US-based inventory and tax setup.

9

Thank you for everyones help. While trying to implement this i have come across another problem. I duplicated my current theme (UK - with different markets) as i want to do a customized theme for US. I have then learnt the hard way by deleting some of the Collections to suit US market, this has now deleted my collections from my orginal theme (dawn) too.

I did some googling and found out duplicating Dawn will mean you have the same theme default which means when changing collection etc on the duplicated one it will also change them on the Active main theme.

I have now added all the collections back, so we are normal again.

Question is, how do i change the Duplicated theme default so i dont change the Main Dawn theme when i try and change collections menu?

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Hi @rickysurtees

You do not need Shopify Advanced for this. Shopify Markets on the Basic or Shopify plan is enough to automatically show US visitors prices in USD, limit which products are available in the US, and handle international shipping from the UK. Currency will switch automatically based on location.

Shopify does not automatically convert measurements, so sizes in inches will need to be handled at the theme level by showing a US-specific size chart or converting measurements for US visitors.

You can continue shipping to the US from the UK using DHL with 2–3 day delivery without any issue. Using your brother-in-law’s US business is not necessary at this stage unless you plan high US sales volume, local returns, or US-based inventory and tax setup.