Is choosing USA as my main shipping region a good idea?

[DannySho]

I have set up a country region as Poland , but I want to shipp mainly to The USA ,because I use Print on Demand Providers based in The USA ,so the shipping is cheaper and faster and the quality of products is the best from these providers. What should I do? Is it good to do that?

[Rick]

Hi there @DannySho 

Welcome to Shopify! I hope your store setup is coming along nicely.

I understand that you have some questions about which country to choose for your Shopify store - I'd be happy to provide some context.

The store information that you enter should accurately reflect where your actual business is located. If your business is located in Poland, then that is the location you should choose. You can change these settings by navigating to Settings > Store Details in your Shopify admin.

You can ship worldwide to places including the US, regardless of your store information - the markets that you sell to do not need to be the same as your business location. Shopify Markets helps you manage your international markets all from a single store.

Also, the payment gateways available for your store to use will depend on the location of your store, and each payment gateway is likely to require supporting documentation to verify your details. To view the payment gateways available to you, check out this resource here.

You mentioned that you wanted to use Print on Demand (POD) services. I would suggest checking out this handy resource, as it contains some great info! Have you sold products online before, or are you just starting out with a brand new business?

[DannySho · Accepted solution]

I start with a Brand new business and I'm judt wondering what to do when it comes to shipping. I use POD supplier based in Usa because of fast shipping within US and the best high-quality printing. But when my orders will be shipped to Europe then it will take 10-30days for delivery and the cost is much higher.I am trying to find ways for the best outcome.

[Rick]

Hi @DannySho 

Thanks for getting back here with this info.

I understand that you are trying to figure out the best setup for POD to both USA and Europe.

Have you decided which POD suppliers you are going to use? Printful and Printify tend to be two of the most popular POD apps that merchants use on their Shopify stores. I checked out the Printful website, and I found a blog post titled 'Everything You Need to Know About Selling Internationally' - I would highly suggest checking this out to learn more about how their services work. Based on that article, Printful has fulfillment centers all over the world, so worldwide shipping shouldn't be an issue regardless of where your store is physically based.

If you clearly communicate on your store the estimated shipping times and costs for all of the regions that you sell to in both USA and Europe, this will help to manage customer expectations and help them make informed purchasing decisions. You could have this information in your Shipping Policy perhaps.

[Jordanker]

Hi Rick, 

I just started on my dropshipping journey hoping to target the US market, so I registered for a .us domain with GoDaddy and plan on connecting it to my Shopify store ASAP. However, using the default Shopify payment US seems unviable right now as I currently do not have a US physical address, so I also have not registered for a single member LLC or applied for a ITIN yet.

As you have mentioned above, "the markets that you sell to do not need to be the same as your business location", so I have a few questions regarding Shopify payments and help would be greatly appreciated!

1. Will deactivating Shopify payments to change the region from US to Singapore (where I'm from) cause any payment processing issues for future customers?

2. Before I deactivate Shopify payments and change the region from US to Singapore, I would like to confirm if the payment options like Stripe, Paypal, Diner's club, Venmo and Discover which I assume are widely used by US citizens (as many other dropshipping websites provide them), are available on Shopify Singapore?

Also, I've seen from your help center that Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay, and UnionPay debit and credit cards are currently accepted for Shopify Singapore right?

3. If I decide to proceed with using Shopify payments US, I found a site https://bizee.com/blog/how-do-you-obtain-free-business-address-for-your-llc where I can purchase a virtual address which functions as a physical US address, and this would aid me in registering for a single member LLC and applying for an ITIN. May I know your thoughts on this?