In short. Shopify preserves EU country-code storefront access for EU visitors and documents optional country recommendations and manual selectors.
Definition: As of October 2026, Shopify keeps visitors from the European Union (EU) on a localized storefront accessed through an EU country-code domain, without automatically redirecting them to another country storefront. Shopify documents third-party apps for country recommendations that let visitors choose their preferred experience.
Key facts
- Shopify's automatic redirection documentation allows automatic redirection for EU customers on generic domains such as
.comand.shop. - Shopify's international domains documentation describes geolocation apps that recommend countries and languages using geographic location and browser or device language.
- Shopify's localization developer guide documents country and language suggestions based on browser settings and an IP address, the network address used for the visitor's connection.
When does the EU redirect restriction apply?
A country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a domain ending associated with a country, such as .de for Germany. Shopify's country/region redirection rules give the example of a visitor from France opening a German .de storefront: Shopify leaves that visitor on the German domain. The same documentation includes .eu in its list of EU domain endings covered by this behavior.
The documentation explains that this preserves access to the store the customer initially seeks. Its generic-domain exception expressly includes .com and .shop.
What country recommendation options does Shopify document?
Shopify's international domains guidance calls for consent-based localization when selling to EU customers through an EU top-level domain. It points merchants to third-party geolocation apps in the Shopify App Store. These apps can recommend a country or language using the visitor's location and browser or device language.
The same guidance lists February 1, 2025 as the installation cutoff for Shopify's own Geolocation app, and March 24, 2025 as its scheduled shutdown and removal date.
For manual switching, Shopify's redirection instructions describe activating country and language selectors on the storefront. A third-party app can add selectors when the theme lacks them. Automatic country redirection has a separate setting under Online Store > Preferences > Automatic redirection > Country/region.
Can a developer build country recommendations?
Shopify's localization guide describes using the Ajax API, an interface queried by storefront JavaScript, to request browsing context suggestions. The guide requires more than one configured market. Country and language suggestions can be requested together, and current values can be excluded.
Its request example is:
await fetch(
window.Shopify.routes.root + 'browsing_context_suggestions.json'
+ '?country[enabled]=true'
+ `&country[exclude]=${window.Shopify.country}`
+ '&language[enabled]=true'
+ `&language[exclude]=${window.Shopify.language}`
).then(r => r.json());
The response includes detected values and suggested countries or languages. The same guide explains that submitting a localization form updates the storefront's current country and language.
Related terms
- How do I link directly to a country's Shopify market experience?
- How do I choose subfolders for Shopify markets?
- How does Shopify add hreflang for international domains?
FAQ
Should I restrict customers to their detected country?
Shopify's developer guidance advises allowing visitors to browse outside their detected location. Detection can be inaccurate with VPNs, and customers may want delivery somewhere other than their current location.
Can I link to a country that has no separate URL?
Yes. Shopify's deep-link documentation gives example.com?country=DE as a link to the German experience within a shared market. You can add the country parameter to campaign or shared URLs.
Sources
- Shopify Help Center, "International domains", undated
- Shopify Help Center, "Set up automatic storefront redirection for your customers", undated
- Shopify.dev, "Detect and set a visitor’s optimal localization", undated
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