How to Sell Internationally on Shopify: Markets, Duties and VAT

This guide is for US brands opening the UK and EU, and UK or EU brands selling into the US. The Shopify setup is the same in both directions. The tax rules are not, and three of them changed between 2025 and 2026. Settle tax and duties first, because they decide your prices.

Shopify Markets lives under Settings > Markets. Each market is a group of countries that share a currency, price list, language and domain. A sensible first setup has three: home, one market that shares your language, and the EU as a single market you split by country later.

Shopify's page on selling in local currencies is clear on the key limit: only Shopify Payments or Adyen can charge customers in their local currency. Orders through other third-party providers are processed in your store's default currency.

Shopify Payments is available to businesses in the US, the UK and most EU countries, so for the brands this guide is written for, it's usually the simplest route. The same Shopify page notes that market-specific product prices and percentage price adjustments are available on all plans, even without Shopify Payments.

Convert prices, then round them by hand. A UK shopper reads GBP 42.00 as a price and GBP 41.37 as a conversion. Build in costs that only exist abroad: currency conversion, packaging, pricier returns and any duty you absorb.

Review market prices every quarter. For which payment methods to switch on per market, see our guide to Shopify payment gateways in the US, UK and EU.

Shopify's duties and import taxes guide warns that the DAP route can result in additional charges to the customer. A surprise bill at the door is where refused parcels come from, so DDP is usually worth the setup for consumer orders.

To collect duties at checkout, Shopify requires HS codes on your products, a carrier that supports DDP labels if you buy labels through Shopify, and no Shopify Fulfillment Network. Carrier brokerage fees aren't included in the duties Shopify calculates, so add them to your shipping rates.

The alternative is Managed Markets, where Global-e acts as merchant of record. Global-e registers for tax in the countries you sell to and remits duties and taxes for you. It's available to businesses in the continental US and to certain stores in Canada and the UK.

The EU charges VAT on every imported parcel, whatever its value. For consignments of EUR 150 or less, the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) lets you charge the buyer's local VAT at checkout and declare it through a single IOSS return, so the parcel clears without the customer paying anything extra. IOSS is voluntary, and goods subject to excise duty are excluded.

Most sellers based outside the EU, including US brands, must appoint an EU-established intermediary to register. The Commission's registration page gives Norway as an example of an exception, based on a VAT recovery agreement with the EU. UK sellers should confirm their position with an adviser.

Without IOSS, VAT is collected at import and the carrier usually collects it from the customer before delivery. Above EUR 150, IOSS doesn't apply at all, and normal import VAT and customs duty rules take over.

One more change matters for 2026. The Commission's guidance on the temporary flat duty says a EUR 3 customs duty per item (not per parcel) applies from 1 July 2026 to e-commerce consignments of EUR 150 or less, regardless of VAT scheme, until 1 July 2028, when normal customs duties apply. A three-item order now carries EUR 9 of duty before VAT, so price bundles with that in mind.

For goods sent from outside the UK directly to UK consumers in consignments of GBP 135 or less, GOV.UK guidance says the seller must charge and account for VAT at the point of sale. That means registering for UK VAT, whatever your sales volume. Sales through online marketplaces follow separate rules, and gifts and excise goods are excluded.

Above GBP 135, normal import VAT and customs rules apply at the border. The duty relief below GBP 135 is also going. The government's policy paper on low-value imports, updated 13 July 2026, says the change will come into force by October 2028 at the latest, on a date set by regulations. Plan for duty on every UK parcel within two years.

Parcels worth USD 800 or less used to enter the US duty-free. CBP announced that the suspension for all countries took effect on August 29, 2025, ahead of a permanent statutory repeal scheduled for July 1, 2027.

CBP's e-commerce FAQs, last updated September 2, 2026, say the suspension covers goods valued at USD 800 or less arriving by all modes, including the international postal network. All applicable duties, taxes and fees are due based on classification, country of origin and value. A new informal entry process for mail took effect July 24, 2026.

For a UK or EU brand, every US order can now carry duty, with your carrier or broker handling the entry. Duty rates for US imports have changed several times since 2025, so ask your carrier to quote the current rate for your top five HS codes before you set US prices, and recheck them before each peak season.

US sales tax is separate: there's no federal VAT, but states set their own rules, and remote sellers can owe tax in a state once sales there cross its threshold. Ask a US tax adviser early.

Shopify's language settings let you publish up to 20 languages on the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans, and up to 30 on Shopify Plus. Languages are assigned per market through subfolders (example.com/de) or subdomains (de.example.com), and Shopify adds hreflang tags and includes published languages in your sitemap.

Treat machine translation as a draft. Have a native speaker review product titles, size guidance, checkout notices and your returns policy.

UK and US English pages that differ only by currency need correct hreflang and canonicals; see our note on Shopify duplicate collection URLs.

Carrier choice follows your duty decision. Shopify's duties guide lists which carriers support DDP labels bought through Shopify, including DHL Express and DHL eCommerce. If you use your own carrier account or a 3PL, confirm in writing that it ships DDP to each destination.

Returns are where international margins disappear. Decide before launch between free returns, a local returns address through your carrier or 3PL, store credit, or a returnless refund below a set value, and make every page say the same thing.

Fraud patterns also change once you ship abroad. Our guide to reducing Shopify chargebacks and fraud covers the checks worth adding before you open new countries.

Open one market, run real orders through it, then add the next.

One store with Markets covers most brands. A second store makes sense when a region needs a different legal entity, payment provider or catalog. For complex multi-region needs, a headless Shopify build is another route, though rarely the first step.

If you also sell wholesale abroad, the same store can serve trade buyers with separate pricing; see our guide to Shopify B2B without Shopify Plus. Pixel2Tech's WordPress and Shopify team sets up markets, pricing, translations and product pages for brands expanding across the US, UK and EU.