Selling online internationally: language, currency and region
Decided to sell in other countries? A step-by-step look at what to set up for language, prices, payments, shipping, domains and legal texts.
The Milofly team
Selling internationally4 min readUpdated:
Contents
For most stores, selling abroad is a decision that arrives one day: an email comes in from a customer in another country, you notice interesting demand on a marketplace, or you realise your product sells at a better price elsewhere. This post walks through what you need to decide when that day comes, in order.
First decision: a separate site, or a new country in the same store?
There are two ways to go abroad. You can build a separate store for each country, or you can add a new sales country to your existing store.
| Separate store | New country in the same store | |
|---|---|---|
| Product catalogue | Kept separately in each store | Stays shared |
| Stock | Synced between stores by hand | Warehouses serve countries |
| Prices and currency | Per store | A price list per country |
| Team and admin | Separate logins | One admin, access per country |
| When it makes sense | A different brand or business | Selling the same products in another country |
If you are selling the same products, the second way saves a great deal of work: you enter a product once, and stock and orders stay in one place. If you are building a completely different brand, a separate store may be the better fit.
Language: translation is more than product names
Selling in a country's language does not just mean translating product names. Every piece of text the shopper sees should be in that language:
- Product descriptions, category names and attribute values (colour, material, size)
- The cart, checkout and error messages
- Order, shipping and return emails
- Legal texts and the cookie banner
For right-to-left languages like Arabic, the page direction changes too. The menu, product cards and checkout need to be laid out right to left; rather than trying to do this by hand, expect your platform to do it for you.
Currency and prices: converting at the exchange rate is not enough
Converting prices automatically at the current exchange rate looks practical at first, but it often produces odd amounts, and your prices change every time the rate moves. Consider keeping a separate price list for each country instead. That way:
- You set the price points shoppers in that country are used to (for example €39.90)
- You build shipping and tax differences into prices on purpose
- You run discounts country by country
Payments: every country has its own habits
If shoppers cannot pay the way they are used to, they leave the cart. In 
Türkiye, card payments in instalments, bank transfer and cash on delivery are common. In 
Germany, methods like PayPal and Klarna stand out.
Payments in each country run through a payment provider you can open an account with there. Before applying, check on the provider's own website which countries it accepts businesses from. If your card payment account is not ready yet, you can start with bank transfer.
Shipping: warehouse, carrier and customs
For international shipments, answer three questions:
- Which warehouse will the product ship from: your current one, or a warehouse in the destination country?
- Which carrier will deliver it, and what will you charge the shopper for shipping?
- Who is responsible for customs duties and fees?
What you charge shoppers for shipping and what the carrier actually costs you are two different numbers, so compare them regularly. For customs duties and fees, follow the rules of your carrier and your customs broker.
Domains and search engines
In each country you can sell on that country's domain (for example yourstore.de) or under a shared domain. Whichever you choose, search engines need to know that the country versions of the same page belong together. Without that link, a search engine may treat the versions as duplicate content or show shoppers the page for the wrong country.
Legal texts
Distance selling terms, withdrawal rights, privacy and cookie texts differ from country to country. Translating one country's text and using it in another is not enough. Have the texts for each country prepared under that country's rules, and keep a record of customer consent.
Step by step
- Decide which country you will sell in and which products you will start with.
- Add the new sales country to your store: language, currency and domain.
- Prepare the price list for that country.
- Set up payment methods and shipping rules for the country.
- Translate product copy, emails and legal texts.
- Place a few test orders and check payments, emails and shipping end to end.
How it works on Milofly
On Milofly you do not open a second store to sell abroad; you add a new sales country to your store. You can sell in Türkiye, Germany and 
the United Arab Emirates. International selling: Included in Enterprise. There is no fee per country. Each country keeps its own language, currency, prices, payments, shipping and domain, and an Arabic storefront is laid out right to left automatically. The details are on the sell internationally feature page.