Setting Up Unique Domains for Global Markets

When expanding your online store internationally, it’s recommended to create unique URLs for each market where you offer a localized shopping experience. This ensures that customers see product information, pricing, and promotions in their local language and currency. It also improves your store’s visibility in local search results and enhances credibility, which can lead to higher conversion rates.

This guide walks you through the available URL structures and how to configure them for different markets in SHOPLINE.

Available URL Structures in SHOPLINE Markets

SHOPLINE supports three types of URL structures to help you deliver a localized experience across different markets: main domain, subdomains, and subfolders. Each option determines how customers access your storefront based on their region and how content is displayed.

• Main Domain: The market shares the store’s primary domain (e.g., yourstore.com). This setup is simple and centralized, but the language options and domain rules will follow your primary market’s settings and cannot be adjusted.
• Subdomain: Subdomains let you assign a unique URL prefix to each market (e.g., jp.yourstore.com). With a subdomain, you can customize the preferred languages to display for that market.
• Subfolder: Subfolders organize market-specific content under the main domain using a path format (e.g., yourstore.com/jp-). This is a good option if you don’t have multiple domains but still want to offer a localized experience. URLs will change based on the language or region enabled.

Steps to Set Up Domains for Your Markets

After creating a market in SHOPLINE, you can configure how customers in that market access your storefront by setting up a domain structure. Follow these steps:

1. From your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Settings > Markets and click the market you want to configure.
   
2. In the Domains and languages card, click Manage to access the domain and language settings for that market.
   
3. Select one of the following domain options based on your business goals:

• • Use main domain: The market shares your store’s primary domain (e.g., yourstore.com).
  • Use subdomain: Assign a unique subdomain (e.g., jp.yourstore.com) to this market.
  • Set a subfolder: Enter a subfolder path (e.g., yourstore.com/jp-) to localize content under the main domain.

4. Make sure the language settings are configured as needed. For details on setting up and managing languages for your markets, refer to this Help Center guide.
   
5. Click Update to save your changes.
6. After configuring the international domain, ensure customers are redirected to the appropriate URL based on their language and location preferences.