Case study · Health & Beauty
Nine countries, and nobody gets a surprise customs bill
A beauty brand was shipping internationally and losing customers twice: once at a checkout in the wrong currency, and again when a courier asked for duty on the doorstep. We rebuilt it on Shopify Markets.
Engagement · Expansion programme
Cross-border commerce, where the checkout is only half the problem.
- Industry
- Beauty & personal care
- Solution
- International commerce expansion
- Platform
- Shopify Markets
- Engagement model
- Dedicated product team
- Scope
- Markets, pricing, duties, localisation, SEO
- Markets
- 9 countries, 6 languages
- Constraint
- Cosmetics compliance varies per market
- Target
- No doorstep surprises
Outcomes
What proper localisation is worth
International revenue triples when customers can see what they will actually pay.
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2.8×
International revenue
Local currency pricing, local payment methods and duties settled at checkout removed the three reasons international customers were abandoning.
Measured across non-domestic revenue 12 months after launch
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−67%
International checkout abandonment
Customers see a price in their own currency including duty and tax from the product page onward, so nothing changes between browsing and paying.
Measured across international checkout sessions before and after
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−89%
Delivery refusals and customs complaints
Duties are collected at checkout and pre-paid to the carrier, so a courier never arrives asking for money the customer was not expecting.
Measured across delivery exceptions after launch
Context
Shipping internationally is not selling internationally
The brand could take an overseas order. That was the extent of it.
The business
A beauty and personal care brand with a strong domestic direct-to-consumer business and growing organic demand from overseas.
The starting point
One store, one currency, international shipping as a delivery option. Duties were the customer's problem on arrival.
The trigger
International traffic was substantial and converting at a fraction of the domestic rate, and customer service was fielding angry messages about unexpected customs charges.
What they wanted
Real local storefronts: local prices, local payment methods, local language, and a total at checkout that is the total.
Constraints
Cosmetics regulations differ per market, so not every product can be sold everywhere · ingredient and claim labelling must be localised · duty rates vary by product classification · SEO must not be split into nine competing sites.
System
What it runs at today
The international business as it runs today.
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9
Markets
With local pricing and payment
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6
Languages
Content and compliance
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2.8×
International revenue
Against the prior year
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0
Doorstep duty demands
Duties settled at checkout
The engineering problem
Four reasons international customers abandon
Each one is a moment where the customer realises they do not know what they will pay.
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A price in the wrong currency
A foreign-currency price with an approximate conversion is a price the customer does not trust, and trust is most of what a checkout is.
What we did
Local currency pricing per market with deliberate price points rather than live conversion, so prices look considered rather than calculated.
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Duty demanded on the doorstep
A customer who pays at checkout and is then asked for duty on delivery feels deceived, refuses the parcel, and never returns.
What we did
Duties and import tax calculated and collected at checkout, pre-paid to the carrier, so delivery is genuinely final.
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Payment methods that do not exist locally
Card-only checkout in markets where local methods dominate simply loses the sale without any signal that it happened.
What we did
Local payment methods enabled per market, chosen from actual local usage rather than from a default list.
-
Nine sites competing with each other in search
Badly structured international sites split their own search authority and end up ranking for nothing anywhere.
What we did
Proper market URL structure with hreflang annotation, so each market ranks locally without competing against its siblings.
Architecture
How it fits together
Simplified — the shape of the system rather than every service in it.
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Markets
- 9 countries
- Currencies
- Payment methods
Each market a real storefront rather than a currency switcher.
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Pricing
- Local price points
- Duty & tax
- Landed cost
The price shown is the price paid, including import cost.
-
Localisation
- 6 languages
- Compliance content
- Claims & ingredients
Translated and regulatory content, not machine-translated product copy.
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Search
- Market URLs
- hreflang
- Local indexation
Structured so markets rank locally instead of competing.
Duties at checkout is the single decision that changed the numbers. Everything else in the programme improved conversion; that one removed the reason customers never came back.
Solutions
What we built
Nine real storefronts, not one with a currency dropdown.
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Market storefronts
Currency, language and catalogue per market.
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Local pricing
Deliberate price points per market.
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Landed cost
Duty and import tax at checkout.
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Local payments
Methods matched to local usage.
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Catalogue rules
Regulatory restrictions per market.
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International SEO
Market URLs and hreflang done properly.
Key capabilities
What it does day to day
Six capabilities across the international business.
| Capability | Runs | Refresh | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market storefronts | Automatic | Per visitor | Currency, language and catalogue resolved per market |
| Local pricing | Merchandiser | Per market | Deliberate local price points, not live conversion |
| Landed cost | Automatic | At checkout | Duty and import tax calculated and collected |
| Local payments | Automatic | Per market | Payment methods matched to local usage |
| Catalogue rules | Automatic | Per market | Products restricted where regulation requires |
| Localised content | Content team | Per market | Language, claims and ingredient labelling per jurisdiction |
Integrations
How the moving parts plug in
The customer sees their market, in their terms.
Visitor arrives
- Market resolvedCountry and language
- Catalogue filteredWhat may be sold there
- Local price shownIn their currency
Checkout
- Duty & import taxCalculated
- Local payment method
- Landed costCollected up front
Delivery
- Duties pre-paidTo the carrier
- No doorstep demand
- No refusalsOr complaints
Restricting the catalogue per market matters as much commercially as legally — a customer who cannot buy a product they were shown is a customer who leaves.
Security & data
What keeps cross-border trading compliant
Beauty products are regulated differently in every market the brand entered.
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Catalogue restrictions
Products are unavailable in markets where their formulation or claims are not permitted.
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Localised labelling
Ingredient and claim content maintained per jurisdiction rather than translated once.
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Tax registration
Registration and collection handled correctly per market, not assumed.
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Classification
Product duty classification maintained so landed cost is accurate rather than approximate.
The brief
The abandonment was information, not friction
The brand thought international conversion was a checkout friction problem and wanted the flow shortened. The data pointed elsewhere: abandonment spiked at the moment the shipping cost and currency appeared, and the repeat rate among international customers who did buy was close to zero.
Both symptoms had the same cause — the customer never knew the real total until it was too late.
- Local price points per market, not live conversion
- Duty and import tax collected at checkout
- Local payment methods from real usage data
- Catalogue restricted where regulation requires
What the expansion had to handle
- 01Cosmetics regulation that differs per market
- 02Ingredient and claim labelling per jurisdiction
- 03Duty rates that vary by classification
- 04SEO that must not fragment across nine markets
Process
We launched one market and proved it
Nine simultaneous launches would have hidden which change did what.
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Market analysis
Existing international traffic and order data analysed to rank markets by actual demand rather than ambition.
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First market
One market launched complete — pricing, duties, payments, language — and measured for a full quarter.
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Landed cost model
Duty classification verified per product line before the model was trusted in any market.
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Rollout
Remaining markets launched in waves, each with local payment and content verified before go-live.
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Search structure
Market URLs and hreflang implemented at first launch so authority accumulated from day one.
Technology
Shopify Markets, used properly
The platform supports this well; most of the work is in the commercial detail.
Commerce
- Shopify Markets
- Multi-currency
- Local payments
Cross-border
- Duty calculation
- Import tax
- Carrier pre-payment
Localisation
- Translated content
- Compliance content
- Market catalogues
Search
- Market URLs
- hreflang
- Local indexation
Business impact
What changed for the brand
Three outcomes in the first year of expansion.
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International revenue 2.8×
From the same traffic that was already arriving.
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Delivery complaints down 89%
Because nobody is asked for money at the door.
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Nine markets operating properly
Rather than one store that happens to post abroad.
The result
International stopped being an afterthought
International revenue is 2.8× what it was, from largely the same traffic, because customers can now see what they will actually pay.
Delivery refusals and customs complaints fell 89%, which matters more than it sounds — those customers used to be permanently lost.
- International revenue 2.8×
- International abandonment down 67%
- Delivery refusals down 89%
- Nine markets, six languages
What we hold to in cross-border commerce
- 01Collect duty at checkout or lose the customer permanently
- 02Set local price points; do not convert live
- 03Restrict the catalogue where regulation requires it
- 04Launch one market completely before launching nine
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