Shopify unveils Shopify Markets

Shopify unveils Shopify Markets to help New Zealand businesses tap into the tremendous potential of global cross-border commerce

Shopify Markets removes the complexity of international commerce and empowers smaller retailers to scale and reach consumers wherever they are

To help independent New Zealand brands expand and reach customers globally amid a global ecommerce market forecast to reach nearly US$5 trillion this year*, Shopify, the leading global commerce platform, today launched Shopify Markets: a centralised hub with all the tools needed for merchants to manage global commerce. Now, merchants can use Shopify Markets to identify, set-up, launch, and optimise international markets—all from a single Shopify store.

Shopify already powers cross-border commerce for our merchants with solutions like international domains and multicurrency, empowering merchants to generate US$20 billion in cross-border sales in 2020 alone. But we know that the appetite for international commerce is only growing: in July 2021, 36% of all traffic to Shopify stores in New Zealand came from international buyers, with 30% of Shopify New Zealand merchants like Jamie Kay already selling cross-border

For merchants, selling outside of their home country can still be daunting. Complexities like currency conversion, language localisation, providing local payment methods, and duty and import taxes can all act as barriers to effectively selling internationally, especially if you don’t know where to start. We're solving that and making Shopify global by default. Enter Shopify Markets: a centralised hub with all the tools needed for merchants to manage global commerce.

Shaun Broughton, Managing Director APAC, Shopify said: “The pandemic and resulting lockdown regulations have pushed Kiwi merchants to reimagine the possibilities of retail and take a serious look at the growing opportunities in overseas markets. The new Shopify Markets will help local businesses leverage these opportunities and unlock the true potential of borderless commerce by selling to overseas buyers more easily and effectively.”

With Shopify Markets, merchants can:

Enter new markets easily: With just a few clicks, merchants can enable new markets and open their business to more global customers. Merchants can then manage these markets from a central dashboard for a unified view of their entire business.

Increase buyer trust and conversion with tailored experiences for each market: We’ve seen that the conversion rates for storefronts with localised languages and currencies is up to 1.13x and 1.40x higher, respectively. To help merchants deliver meaningful experiences to their customers across regions, Shopify Markets will help merchants easily customise:

Local currencies and payment methods

Pricing and price rounding rules per market

Product availability per market

Local languages

Local domains with automatic SEO optimisation

Automatically show the right currency / language based on buyer country

Duties and import taxes on behalf of the buyer to eliminate surprise costs at product delivery (merchants can now account for these fees at checkout)

Optimise cross-border operations with actionable insights and smart settings: Insights surfaced by Shopify will help merchants determine where, when, and how to most effectively sell in a new region based on aggregate data from Shopify’s more than 1.7 million merchants globally. Smart settings let merchants automatically optimise for the best results, without needing a dedicated global operations team. For example, merchants won’t need to keep track of what local payment methods are most popular in each market. Shopify knows what converts best, and will automatically surface the best payment methods at checkout.

Save time with a central global management platform: Merchants can seamlessly create localised storefronts from one store, which means they can manage all cross-border commerce in a single place in the Shopify admin with tailored consumer experiences in each market—whether that market is a country, like the United States, or a region, like all of Europe. Merchants will have a unified view of their entire business and monitor how their business is performing in activated markets—both domestic and international—thanks to Shopify’s centralised commerce platform.

Shopify Markets will be available in early access globally starting today, rolling out to all merchants in the coming months. Visit shopify.com/markets to learn more.

Supporting Quote

Jamie Fridd, Founder and Designer, Jamie Kay

"At the core of Jamie Kay’s success are our incredible customers from all over the world that have continued to appreciate and love our brand, helping Jamie Kay to grow into what is now a global brand with products distributed in more than 96 countries worldwide. All of this was made possible by Shopify which offers features and applications that are designed to help remove barriers for cross-border transactions, enabling us to focus on the important task of enhancing the customer buying experience by delivering the things that they want including great customer service, quality products and fast delivery."

About Shopify

Shopify is a leading provider of essential internet infrastructure for commerce, offering trusted tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business of any size. Shopify makes commerce better for everyone with a platform and services that are engineered for reliability, while delivering a better shopping experience for consumers everywhere. Proudly founded in Ottawa, Shopify powers millions of businesses in more than 175 countries and is trusted by brands such as Allbirds, Wine Central, elph ceramics, MAAP, The Sheet Society and many more. For more information, visit shopify.co.nz

*Global ecommerce update, eMarketer

© Scoop Media