Strategy to set up an international shop

[raphael_w]

I have some basic questions about setting up a Magento 2 shop, especially regarding the structure and the concept of websites, stores and store views. The following requirements must be met:

• international: every country needs its own shop; the delivery address must match this country, the currency and language has to be defined for each shop
• the URLs of the shops should use this pattern: [domain.tld]/[ISO-2-code-country]-[ISO-2-code-language]; examples: shop.com/uk-en/, shop.com/ch-de/, shop.com/ch-fr/
• the default shop should be detected (e.g. Geo-IP or browser locale) and switched automatically; there should be also an overview page with links to all countries available to switch the shop manually, like on apple.com
• the frontend user base (customers) should be shared globally not country-wise
• the inventory should be shared globally, but the prices of the products have to be defined for each shop differently

Since I'm still relatively inexperienced in terms of Magento, I'm unsure which approach I should choose for the shop structure. When I search the internet for country shops, I find mostly the solution to realize that based on stores, but then I would have the problem to limit the delivery address to a country, right? Would I have to define a website for each country and define the users globally? And regarding the shop switcher: can I realize this with the Magento core or does it require an extension?

Thanks in advance, I would be grateful for every hint!

[Damian Culotta · Accepted solution]

Hi @raphael_w,

WIth Magento out-of-the-box you will be able to solve most of those requirments (and you should use an extension in one case).

1) Would I have to define a website for each country and define the users globally?

If you will use diferrent rules/prices/shipping methods/payment mehtods, probably the asnwer will be "yes". Here you can read about websites and stores for Magento  https://docs.magento.com/m2/ce/user_guide/stores/websites-stores-views.html

2) And regarding the shop switcher: can I realize this with the Magento core or does it require an extension?

You can use the store switch from Magento but if you want to use something with a better UI you maybe will need to customize the selector.

Another option coul dbe to use some geoip module to auto-assign customers (or suggest the right country at least).

In that case you will need am extension or build your own module.

Regardon your requirements:

3) international: every country needs its own shop; the delivery address must match this country, the currency and language has to be defined for each shop

Maybe you can group countries with similar rules. Then, each payment and/or shipping method can ve configured to be available only for some countries?

If not, you will need as many websites as countries you want to enable (at least with this information)

4) the URLs of the shops should use this pattern: [domain.tld]/[ISO-2-code-country]-[ISO-2-code-language]; examples: shop.com/uk-en/, shop.com/ch-de/, shop.com/ch-fr/

Maybe the easy way is using the store codes in the URL. You can configure that as you want.

5) the default shop should be detected (e.g. Geo-IP or browser locale) and switched automatically; there should be also an overview page with links to all countries available to switch the shop manually, like on apple.com

As I've mentioned on #2, probably you will need to apply a little customziation here or even a 3rd-party module.

6) the frontend user base (customers) should be shared globally not country-wise

Out of the box feature. Just a configuration.

7) the inventory should be shared globally, but the prices of the products have to be defined for each shop differently

At the moment, by default, inventory is global so you will be fine. Also, prices can be defined per website if you want.

(my 2 cents)

[raphael_w]

Hi Damian,

---

@Damian Culotta wrote:

2) And regarding the shop switcher: can I realize this with the Magento core or does it require an extension?

You can use the store switch from Magento but if you want to use something with a better UI you maybe will need to customize the selector.

Another option coul dbe to use some geoip module to auto-assign customers (or suggest the right country at least).

In that case you will need am extension or build your own module.

---

I'd like to create a website switcher like the "Choose your country or region." page of the Apple website - how could I realize this with Magento 2.1? Do I have to create a CMS page, a module or is there a built-in website switcher that could be modified?
Thanks in advance!

[Damian Culotta]

Hi @raphael_w 

For that kind of Country Selector you will need a customization or a 3rd-party module.

Isn't an out-of-the-box feature (not in that way).

I don't have a module in mind but maybe you can try to find some alternative at https://marketplace.magento.com