Comparing Shopify Markets and Global-E

Since its establishment, Shopify has been committed to making commerce better for everyone, striving to make it effortless for brands to start, operate, and expand their businesses. In pursuit of this mission, Shopify has built an ecosystem that empowers companies to grow their apps, technologies, and businesses alongside the platform. However, there exists a particular area where Shopify has restricted the creation of new apps: the checkout process, as it forms a core part of their business.

On the other hand, Global-E offers a suite of intelligent e-commerce technologies that equip brands with cross-border tools and solutions, enabling them to go global. Global-E's solutions encompass localization, as well as the intricate elements of cross-border selling, such as adhering to local regulations, managing taxes, duties, and facilitating international shipping. Notably, Global-E provides a distinct checkout experience for its customers, which stands in contrast to the limitations imposed by Shopify on alternative checkout solutions.

To provide some context, Shopify Markets was announced in August 2021, and in early 2023, Shopify launched its new checkout system while reinforcing its policies to further restrict the development of alternative checkouts for the platform. During this period, Global-E integrated its solution with Shopify to use Shopify's checkout and emerged as a crucial partner, offering the Shopify Markets Pro solution to Shopify's customers.

After comparing Shopify Markets vs Markets Pro and Shopify Markets Pro vs Global-E in previous pieces, we will now explore the key differences between Shopify Markets and Global-E. What sets them apart? Can they coexist within a Shopify store? Let's dive in and discover the answers!

Global-e

Shopify Markets provides a diverse array of valuable free features aimed at improving your global sales by tailoring shopping experiences to specific regions. With Shopify Markets, you can customize your domain for specific markets, incorporate multiple languages into your store, and facilitate sales in local currencies (if Shopify Payments is supported in your country). and change products and prices by market.

Global-E goes beyond by offering all these localization features natively and streamlining the cross-border selling process, which includes managing local regulations, taxes, duties, and international shipping. Just imagine: you can sell in Germany, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and many other countries, while only being responsible for visibility and sales. Meanwhile, Global-E, as a separate entity, takes on the role of the merchant of record, assuming legal responsibility for selling products to customers. They provide advanced solutions for localization and consolidate all sales into a single invoice. That's the comprehensive solution Global-E provides.

Now, the question that arises is: what are the differences between Shopify Markets and Global-E?

Exploring Key Features

Check out the table below for a summary of the key features we'll be comparing between Shopify Markets and Global-E. For a deeper analysis, keep reading as we explore the specifics of this comparison.

Management

One notable distinction between Shopify Markets and Global-E lies in the platform where their respective sets of features are managed. With Shopify Markets, you can access and manage the features directly within the Shopify Admin under "Settings" and "Markets." Conversely, Global-E's features are handled through their own dedicated app. Should you choose to utilize Global-E, your "Markets" section in the Shopify Admin will be whitelabeled.

Cost

Shopify Markets tools are freely available in any Shopify plan, providing unlimited access to a diverse range of localization tools for various shopping experiences. In contrast, accessing the advanced features of Global-E involves negotiating pricing with them, which is determined based on the estimated order volume they handle for you. As their management of orders increases, you can anticipate a more competitive pricing offer.

Customer Success Manager

Embracing internationalization, particularly localization, can offer numerous advantages for any brand, as we highlighted in our article on Shopify Localization. However, venturing into new markets also presents challenges and unfamiliar situations. That's where Global-E steps in, offering the expertise of their specialized internationalization team to assist you in expanding your brand globally. In contrast, Shopify Markets does not provide dedicated personal support for this specific purpose.

Geolocation

While geolocation remains a core functionality provided by Global-E in other e-commerce platforms, their approach differs within the Shopify platform. After integrating with Shopify, Global-E has chosen to prioritize their other cross-border services, leaving geolocation, including their well-known "Welcome popup," to be handled by other geolocation apps.

As a result, brands utilizing both Shopify Markets and Global-E will need to explore the range of Shopify geolocation apps available on Shopify. To assist you in making an informed decision, we have conducted a comprehensive feature comparison of these geolocation apps. Our analysis positions Orbe as the leading choice in the ranking.

Adding more Local Payment Methods

While Shopify Markets aims to provide a range of local payment methods available through Stripe, Global-E goes the extra mile by incorporating widely used local payment methods specific to each region. This approach helps build trust and enhances the international conversion rate.

Fraud Protection

In contrast to Shopify Markets, which does not provide protection against fraud for international orders, Global-E offers an additional layer of security to safeguard your interests in the event of fraud on international orders.

Collect Taxes & Duties

Unlike Shopify Markets, which does not facilitate the collection of taxes and duties at checkout, shifting the responsibility to the customer upon order receipt, Global-E offers a different approach. Global-E provides detailed information about taxes and duties during the checkout process, enabling customers to pay for them at that stage. This ensures that customers are aware of and only pay for the applicable taxes and duties, eliminating any potential surprises. Moreover, if there are any additional costs, Global-E takes on the responsibility, thereby safeguarding both the brand and the customer from unexpected charges.

International tax & duty compliance

Contrary to Shopify Markets, where the burden of tax registration and remittance rests with the brand, Global-E assumes the legal responsibility for selling products to customers in different regions or countries. This alleviates the brand from the complexities of managing tax obligations across multiple jurisdictions. Global-E simplifies this process by issuing a single invoice that consolidates sales from all the countries they manage. This contrast underscores how Global-E streamlines tax-related responsibilities, enabling brands to concentrate on their core business operations.

Shipping

Both Shopify Markets and Global-E offer brands the option to work with various shipping providers. However, there are differences in how this is managed. In Shopify Markets, the decision of which shipping provider to use remains with the seller, allowing them full control. On the other hand, with Global-E, they make the decision from their extensive list of shipping providers based on factors such as price, destination country, required shipping date, and more.

To effectively utilize Global-E, brands will need to integrate their logistics and systems with Global-E's platform. As a result, when orders managed through Global-E are received, the process may differ slightly from the regular merchant-managed process.

Returns Portal

Imagine receiving a significant volume of international orders, which naturally leads to a certain number of return requests from customers in various countries. Dealing with these requests on a daily basis can present challenges, particularly when facing different conditions in each country.

To alleviate this, Global-E offers its own dedicated return portal, designed to simplify the returns process. This specialized portal provided by Global-E helps streamline and manage returns, making it easier for your customer team to handle return requests efficiently.

It's important to note that the use of this returns portal is optional for brands. Global-E brands can decide whether to this portal or opt for a specialized app like ReturnGo, which many brands using Shopify Markets choose to use. Such an app can also assist you in effectively managing the returns process.

FAQs

Conclusion

While Shopify Markets is available to any Shopify brand for free and offers efficient tools to embrace localization, which were previously only partially available for Expansion Stores as we discussed in our comparison of Shopify Markets versus Expansion Stores, Global-E takes cross-border selling to the next level. Global-E simplifies the complexities of selling to other countries on your behalf, opening up new opportunities to expand your business globally.

In fact, Global-E's technology is so powerful that Shopify itself has developed Markets Pro around it, recognizing its capabilities and potential.

We trust our content has provided value to you. If you plan to implement Global-e in one Expansion store and continue using Shopify Markets in another, you can find insights on managing multiple Shopify stores in a dedicated article.