Going Global: Mastering Multi-Country Sites with Headless Shopify Setups

In the world of business, the more potential customers you can reach, the greater sales and profits are possible. In the days before platforms such as Shopify Headless, brick-and-mortar shops were the only game in town. Business owners were limited primarily to people who lived in the area.

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The U.S. Postal system enabled catalog and mail-order business and that helped expand customer bases. Today, thanks to the internet, business owners can reach people all over the planet. There's a reason it's called the World Wide Web.

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Global eCommerce is trending and growing geometrically. Using web technology, a company can offer goods and services to hundreds of millions and scale their business to heights previously impossible.

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One of the latest types of online business is headless eCommerce. In this type of platform, the front end where businesses present their content is separated from the back end of content creation and storage. This enables creativity and the ability to create and present content in many languages, fonts, and styles. When reaching out to an international customer base, this aspect of Shopify Headless is invaluable.

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At elk Marketing, we have a core team of experts in all aspects of eCommerce. We can provide assistance to help you set up and enhance a headless Shopify platform that will help you scale your company globally. This saves you the expense and headaches of trying to do this in-house. Our team is always available to help you in every aspect of eCommerce.

The Basics of Headless Shopify

A traditional Shopify setup is monolithic. It ties the front-end and back-end operations together. It's fairly easy and fast to implement as it only requires a single installation package. This handles the presentation of your store, content, and products, as well as inventory, payment, and shipping functions.

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Headless Shopify, on the other hand, uses a Storefront API to connect a Shopify backend with your choice of front end. The installation package for a headless platform contains all of the backend components but not the frontend. This allows you to choose and install your preferred front-end components. 

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There are many benefits to the headless approach, especially for businesses that plan to scale internationally:

• Full Customization - With the option to choose your front-end technology, the customization options are endless. Languages, fonts, colors, graphics, and any other aspects of the presentation are yours to choose and display. You can appeal to people of any nation or culture.
• Faster Load Times - In a traditional Shopify platform, rendering of front and backend operations are linked. This can slow down page loads, especially during checkout and payment processing. A headless setup with its decoupled backend allows for faster load times of pages. This will appeal to customers and enhance their experience. They will keep coming back.
• Multiple Channels - Shopify headless allows you to create and manage multiple channels for your business. Customers will have the option of shopping on the channel that appeals to them and suits their language and cultural needs. This is extremely helpful for global companies. 
• Greater SEO Capabilities - With the ease of customizing your presentation layer that headless offers, you have greater flexibility with SEO. Add images, video, and audio, as well as customized site navigation features and URL parameters. Your site will offer a user-friendly experience that visitors will love.
• Quicker to Market - The separate frontend structure makes it faster and more efficient to create new code and make changes to the presentation layer. This also speeds up A/B testing, and integration and reduces your time to market.
• Interoperability - Headless Shopify is API-driven and therefore fully interoperable. APIs can integrate different programming languages which eliminates the need for integration interfaces and plugins. 

Headless architecture is modular, meaning you have full control over the presentation and functionality of your site. This is of great help to international commerce. You can create as many channels as you need, using the native languages of the countries you want to sell to. 

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When presenting prices, you can do so in native currencies, on both display pages and during checkout. You can offer multiple domestic and international shipping options to accommodate global customers.

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The flexibility of going headless will also allow you to create presentations that will appeal to potential customers of various national and cultural backgrounds. Colors, logos, images, videos, music, and more are all available to you to use however you like.

Challenges of Multi-Country eCommerce

Managing an eCommerce site across different countries is a great way to scale your business and experience far greater growth than would be possible just by selling domestically. There are challenges to global eCommerce that you must take into consideration.

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People need to be able to understand your content, product descriptions, as well as payment and shipping options. Your eCommerce site's presentation layer must be able to display all of this text in the languages of any nation you are reaching out to. Likewise, your site must be able to present the cost of products, shipping, and discounts in the local currency. Your business must also comply with the laws of the nations you wish to do business in. This includes taxes, shipping restrictions, clearing customs, and other regulations relating to eCommerce.

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Another challenging aspect of global eCommerce is localizing your content and the user experience you offer. Other nations have cultures that can be very different than here in the U.S. You want visitors to your site to enjoy navigating it and shopping. To accomplish this, your site and content must cater to their local customs.

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Shopify headless architecture performs where traditional eCommerce platforms fall short. Traditional platforms have limited options for customization. This makes it difficult to tailor your site to different countries, regarding language, currency, and local laws. 

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Additionally, it makes it difficult to keep up with trends by increasing the time to market. With the front end and back end linked, adding or changing functions is a much more involved and time-consuming process.

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Traditional monolithic platforms leave security gaps. These can easily be exploited by hackers. When reaching an international market, there are going to be many more hackers that put your site at risk. 

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Traditional eCommerce platforms rely on default technology. This limitation makes scalability more difficult as you cannot react quickly enough to changing market trends and customer needs. You may not be able to grow your business anywhere near the goals you set.

How Headless Shopify Addresses These Challenges

Shopify Headless can solve these problems and help you overcome the challenge of global eCommerce. The separation between the front end and back end allows the use of a large number of APIs and storefront tool kits. Utilizing these tools allows the creation of multiple channels.

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Each channel can present in a different language of a nation you want to do business in. You can create product pages that appeal to local cultures as well as display prices in the local currency. Each channel can offer a choice of shipping options that are attractive to customers in that nation.

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Using the APIs of Headless Shopify also makes it easy to ensure that every aspect of eCommerce complies with local laws and customs. A great example is using an email campaign. A customer gets an email advertising a product on sale. By clicking a link, they land on the page on your website that displays the product, tailored to their nation. Now, it's a simple matter of making the selection, placing it in the cart, and checking out. Thanks to the wide variety of APIs, you can accommodate potential customers in any nation you want to reach out to. 

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Some examples of dynamic content delivery tailored to the location and preferences of the user are emails written in that user's native language. This adds a personal touch and avoids the step of translation. 

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You can also tailor your digital advertising to appeal to customers based on data you collect on their shopping history and preferences. Another example is creating discounts and special offers that are specifically tailored to the tastes of individual customers. Shopify Headless makes it much easier to give each user a personalized experience no matter what part of the world they live in.

elk’s Enhancement of Headless Shopify for Global Use

Setting up and managing a global eCommerce platform is challenging. It's too big a job for one IT employee and hiring a team is expensive. That's where we come in. With elk Marketing, you have a team with more than 120 years of combined expertise at your disposal.

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Using our Growth SEO method, we can help you plan, design, and implement Shopify Headless in the best way to grow your business.

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Our experts will help you choose the APIs best suited to your business and customers and implement them for international eCommerce. After a thorough analysis of keywords, we will plan a strategy that optimizes SEO across all the nations you do business in. 

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Once your Headless Shopify site is live, we use our tools to monitor performance, making adjustments as needed and ensuring compliance with all regional laws and shipping and customs regulations. 

Implementing Headless Shopify with elk

Setting up a Headless Shopify store doesn't have to be a frustrating and overwhelming experience. That's what elk Marketing is here for. We will take you through the process, step by step.

• Set up a Shopify account - This is easily accomplished. Visit the Shopify website, follow the prompts, and enter your business information. 
• Choose a plan - Shopify has several plans available. Your elk expert will help you choose the one that best suits your business.
• Customize your store - With our guidance and assistance, you will choose the design of your pages, how you want products listed, and checkout and shipping options. Our team will help you choose and set up your front end, using the APIs and tools that allow you to create a site that reflects your needs and preferences.

Building your back end is an essential step in optimizing the performance of your site and the user experience. You will need a thorough understanding of the Shopify Headless Storefront API as well as knowledge of how the back-end tools work. We will guide you through the entire process.

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Next, our experts will take you through customizing your backend to suit your business needs and customers in any region you choose. Integration of security and data management in real-time is another important aspect of this step.

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Once your front and back ends have been created, you will need to connect them. This will involve synchronizing the flow of data. Before going live, we will test your platform thoroughly and make adjustments to optimize performance.

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Make sure to use our analytical tools and customization features to manage your site and maximize your global reach. We are always there for you. Take advantage of our monitoring and continued support to help you use these features properly and scale your business to new heights.

Success Stories and Case Studies

Many companies have benefited from the assistance of elk Marketing to expand into global eCommerce.

• Vivante Living - An award-winning brand that specializes in memory care and luxury assisted living, Vivante experienced a 400% increase in conversions through ads with the guidance of elk Marketing.
• Sunday Swagger - A golf and lifestyle brand that sells stylish and fun clothing, Sunday Swagger came to us with the problem of standing out in a crowded retail space. Our expert guidance led to a 232% increase in non-branded organic traffic and a 304% rise in page-one keyword rankings.

These are just two of the many companies that experienced incredible results thanks to elk Marketing. 

Final Thoughts

Scaling a business in today's competitive online marketplace means going global. The Shopify Headless platform solves many of the potential problems of multi-country eCommerce. If you are looking to scale your international eCommerce business and increase efficiency and effectiveness, you should consider going headless. 

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This move can be challenging, so visit elk Marketing's website to schedule a consultation on how we can help you go global with Shopify Headless.