# FAQs
## Orbe
Why should I choose Orbe over Shopify’s automatic redirection for geolocation?
Forcing visitors into a country storefront with IP-based automatic redirects can look like a shortcut, but it often creates more problems than it solves.
International storefronts need more than a redirect. They need the right balance between SEO, privacy, accessibility, and user choice.
Forced redirections can affect:
* **SEO:** search engines might not be able to access and index all localized versions of your store correctly. Google recommends avoiding automatic redirection between language versions because it can prevent users and search engines from viewing every version of the site: [Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/managing-multi-regional-sites#let-the-user-switch-the-page-language).
* **Crawlers, feeds, and LLMs:** bots, commerce crawlers, and AI crawlers can receive only the redirected version of the page. If a crawler is redirected to the US or English experience, it might miss localized prices, currencies, product content, or language-specific pages.
* **Google Merchant Center:** mismatches between prices, currencies, and campaign destinations can create disapprovals or incorrect product data.
* **Privacy compliance:** forcing a redirect before the visitor makes a choice can create issues under privacy and data protection laws, especially in regions where users must be able to understand and control how their location or language preferences are used.
* **Customer trust:** visitors can feel disoriented if they are moved without being asked.
Orbe Geolocation is built for this layer.
Orbe Geolocation gives visitors a clear, accessible way to choose their country and language experience instead of forcing an automatic redirect on the first visit. After the visitor makes a choice, Orbe remembers it with a first-party functional cookie and can keep them in the correct country experience on later visits.
This means the first visit is privacy-conscious and user-led. Return visits can be frictionless.
Shopify also recognizes that automatic redirection has limits. For example, Shopify explains that EU customers accessing a localized experience with an EU country-code domain, such as `.de`, `.fr`, or `.es`, are not automatically redirected. Shopify recommends using a third-party app to provide country or region recommendations so customers can select the best experience for their language and location.
You can read Shopify's documentation here: [Country/region redirection in the European Union (EU)](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/international/automatic-redirection#countryregion-redirection-in-the-european-union-eu).
This helps merchants with:
* **Better international UX:** visitors can choose the right country and language experience.
* **Privacy-conscious routing:** Orbe asks first, then remembers the visitor's choice.
* **Consistent return visits:** Orbe remembers the visitor's country and language choice.
* **SEO control:** regional experiences can remain discoverable by search engines.
* **Feed and crawler reliability:** localized experiences can stay accessible to search engines and commerce crawlers.
* **Accessibility:** Orbe's geolocation popup and selectors are designed and maintained to meet accessibility criteria within the components controlled by Orbe.
In short, Orbe gives international merchants more control over how visitors choose, enter, and return to the correct country storefront without sacrificing SEO, compliance, accessibility, or user choice.
How can I customise the style of the welcome Orbe popup?
Orbe integrates natively with any Shopify theme. Once you install Orbe in your store, you can customise the look and feel of your popup using our app-embed in the Shopify Theme Editor.
Is it possible to show "Markets" or group countries in the selector instead of showing each individual country in the country selector?
Due to technical constraints and limitations within Shopify International (also known as Shopify Markets), Orbe is unable to display "Markets" or group countries together in the country selector. While Shopify Markets allows merchants to group experiences by market, it is fundamentally structured at the country level. Markets have been designed as a Shopify feature intended solely to make management more efficient for the merchant, not for the customer’s final storefront experience.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to show "Markets" or group countries in the selector due to how Shopify storefronts are structured at a country-specific level. While it might seem practical to group countries under broader categories like "Europe" or "Rest of the World," Shopify requires each redirection to be tied to an individual country.
Imagine a scenario where a brand has four available markets: the United States, the United Kingdom, a market labeled "Europe" encompassing Spain, France, Italy, and Germany, and a "Rest of the World" market covering all other countries. Ideally, the brand might want the geolocation popup to display only these four options: the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Rest of the World. However, since Shopify Markets is structured at the country level, every redirection by Orbe must be specific to an individual country.
For example, assuming the store URL is , to redirect users within the "Europe" market, Orbe would need to add a specific `?country=CountryCode` parameter for each country. This would result in unique redirection links for each country in Europe:
* Spain:
* France:
* Italy:
* Germany:
While Shopify Markets allows merchants to group countries for organizational simplicity, it does not support redirection to an entire market. Instead, redirection remains country-specific, which affects factors like tax rates, shipping options, or even content tailored to each country.
Consider a scenario where a merchant wishes to redirect users to a "Rest of the World" market that spans Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Shopify would require a specific country to be indicated in the URL for this redirection. For instance, if "Australia" were chosen as the representative country for "Rest of the World," a user accessing the store from Japan would be directed to an experience tailored for Australia. This could lead to discrepancies in prices (due to different tax rates), shipping options, and even country-specific content configured in Shopify using the `{{ localization.country }}` object in Liquid. Thus, each country can have unique configurations and localized experiences that cannot be overridden by a market grouping.
Attempting to redirect at a market level or group countries in the selector **is not technically compatible with Shopify Markets**. Any app trying to redirect to a market as a whole, rather than by individual country, would be incompatible with Shopify’s infrastructure, potentially leading to issues with the customer experience.
Orbe adheres to this country-based structure to ensure full compatibility with Shopify’s ecosystem, as Shopify is built for storefronts focused on the country level.
Is it possible to implement automatic redirections instead of showing a popup?
Yes. Orbe Geolocation can automatically redirect visitors, but only after the visitor has made an explicit country or language choice.
This is intentional. Forcing an automatic redirect on the first visit can create SEO, privacy, accessibility, and user experience issues for international storefronts. We explain this in more detail here: [Common Shopify Markets mistakes: relying on redirects](https://orbe.app/blogs/blog/shopify-markets-mistakes#rely-on-redirects).
On the first visit, if an international visitor lands in the wrong country experience, Orbe performs a one-off technical geolocation check and shows a geolocation popup. The visitor can then choose the right country and language experience.
After that explicit action, Orbe stores the visitor's choice in a first-party functional cookie.
On later visits, Orbe can automatically redirect the visitor to the correct country and language experience without showing the popup again, depending on your configuration.
This gives merchants the best of both worlds: a privacy-conscious first visit and a frictionless experience on return visits.
This approach helps protect international SEO, respect privacy expectations, and guarantee a better international UX. Automatic redirections without a prior visitor choice can create SEO, privacy, and user experience issues, especially for international storefronts.
Does Orbe appear twice to the user?
No, it doesn't.
Orbe does not show the geolocation popup twice when the visitor already has a saved country and language preference.
The usual flow is:
1. On the first relevant visit, Orbe shows the geolocation popup so the visitor can choose their country and language.
2. After the visitor makes a choice, Orbe remembers that preference with a first-party functional cookie.
3. On later visits, Orbe uses that saved preference to load the correct storefront automatically, without showing the popup again.
The popup only appears again if the saved preference expires.
You control that timing with the **Preferences duration** setting. For example, if you ask Orbe to remember a visitor's choice for 60 days, the popup stays hidden during those 60 days. After that, Orbe can ask again so the visitor can confirm their country and language.
Learn how to configure it in [Geolocation](/settings/geolocation.md#preferences-duration).
Can I use Orbe with multiple expansion stores?
Yes, you can, and it is our most popular use case. If you pay for the Plus Plan in one of your stores, you can connect a maximum of four different Shopify stores and redirect the traffic to the right shopping experience. If you have over four Shopify stores, please contact our team at to request a custom plan.
Does Orbe allow redirecting with the full path of the URL?
Yes, it does. It’s an advanced setting you can enable. If a merchant connects two different Shopify stores and both have the same URL structure, can enable this feature so if, for example, a British user goes to example.fr/collections/all, it will be redirected to example.co.uk/collections/all.
Does Orbe allow efficient UTM tracking when there is a redirection?
Yes, it does. For example, if a French user access to the United States experience with a UTM parameter from a Facebook ad: , Orbe will redirect the user to the French experience maintaining the full path in the URL: .
In this way, Orbe guarantees that the store owner does not lose the traffic attribution for all their media campaigns.
Is Orbe compatible with other apps?
Yes. Orbe is compatible with any app that is compatible with Shopify Markets, including order editing, checkout, subscriptions, and other Shopify-native app flows.
Is Orbe compatible with translation apps?
Yes. Orbe works with translation apps that follow Shopify's Translation API and Shopify Markets workflow.
Your translation app manages your store content translations (theme, product, and collection content). Orbe manages international logic, including geolocation recommendations and country/language routing.
If you are evaluating translation options, you can explore Shopify's store-language apps here: .
Orbe Translate is coming soon and will become our recommended setup for Shopify merchants. You can join the beta here: .
Does Orbe convert currencies with JavaScript?
No. Orbe does not use client-side JavaScript currency conversion.
This is intentional. In Shopify, the best practice is to set local currencies through Shopify Markets and Shopify Payments, so customers can complete checkout in the correct local currency.
JavaScript currency converters can display converted prices in the storefront, but checkout may still happen in a different currency. This creates confusion and a poor buying experience.
Orbe focuses on international routing and market experience: it ensures each visitor lands in the correct country and language experience, and stays in the correct journey. Shopify then handles checkout currency as intended.
If your business cannot use Shopify Payments in your country, a currency converter can still be a temporary fallback for price display. In that case, keep in mind that customers may still pay in your store's primary currency.
Can I add country and language selectors with Orbe?
Yes. Orbe provides multiple selector options you can add to your theme, including Geolocation Button, Country Selector, Language Selector, and Modal Selector.
If your theme already includes its own selector, you can also integrate it with Orbe. See the full options here: [Selectors overview](/selectors/overview.md).
Does Orbe have a Free plan or Trial plan?
You can use our geolocation service for free, up to 300 total redirects. If you'd like more time to evaluate our service before making a decision, we offer free trials:
* For Monthly plans, you'll enjoy a **7-day free trial**. If you decide to cancel your plan within these seven days, you won't incur any charges.
* With Yearly plans, we provide a **15-day free trial.** Should you choose to cancel your plan during the first 15 days, there will be no charges applied.
For details on what counts as a redirect, see [How do we count total redirects?](/before-starting/pricing.md#how-do-we-count-total-redirects).
What happens if I want to cancel my subscription?
You can cancel the paid plan at any time. You will only be charged for the last month you used Orbe.
Why is the Orbe cookie a first-party essential cookie?
Orbe uses a first-party functional cookie to remember the visitor's location and language choice. This cookie is created only when the visitor takes an explicit action in the geolocation popup, such as accepting or selecting a country, language, or market.
The initial geolocation check does not install cookies. It uses minimal technical data, such as IP address or browser language, on a one-off and non-persistent basis to recommend the right localized experience.
This cookie is essential because it lets Orbe keep the visitor in the correct language, country, currency, or market experience on future visits. Without that preference, Orbe cannot reliably provide the experience requested by the visitor, including an accessible experience where they can understand the storefront and cookie banner.
This first-party functional cookie is used only to remember the visitor's choice and render the right storefront.
If you use Shopify cookie management apps, the Orbe functional cookies should be allowed as essential cookies. Blocking them can prevent Orbe from remembering the visitor's country or language choice and may break the international experience.
The main Orbe functional cookies are:
* `mdApp_countryCodeDomain`
* `mdApp_showRecommendationLang`
This information is provided for transparency. For other jurisdictions, merchants remain responsible for configuring their own cookie banner, privacy policy, and legal settings according to local law.
Does Orbe's geolocation popup meet accessibility standards?
Yes. Orbe Geolocation's default geolocation popup, country selector, and language selector are designed and maintained to meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility criteria within the components controlled by Orbe.
Accessibility is part of Orbe's value for international storefronts. Visitors should be able to choose their country and language without barriers.
This includes keyboard interaction, readable structure, contrast considerations, clear hierarchy, and compatibility efforts with assistive technologies.
The final accessibility of the storefront can also depend on the merchant's theme, custom code, third-party scripts, and implementation. Merchants remain responsible for the accessibility of their storefront as a whole.
You can read the full Accessibility Statement here: .
## Shopify Markets
When using Shopify Markets, you might come across specific store behaviours or have doubts about setting up your preferences accurately. No worries! We're here to assist you in resolving these common queries.
{% hint style="info" %}
We strongly advise you to refer to the **official Shopify Markets** support documentation at for further assistance.
{% endhint %}
What is the behaviour of Shopify Markets when a user transitions from the storefront cart to the checkout?
As explained by the Shopify Markets team:
If the user does not use Orbe or any selector in their theme to choose a country in the storefront, Shopify will automatically geolocate the country during checkout. However, suppose the user intentionally selects a different country than the default in any selector on the storefront. In that case, Shopify respects that selection and sets it as the default country in the checkout.
For example, suppose a customer enters the storefront without selecting their market in Orbe and is located in a different country than the one they are visiting. In that case, the checkout will automatically change to their IP country and the user's preferred language.
Consider a specific example: Suppose a user does not use the Orbe popup or any country selector in their theme and is visiting your store's British experience in English. This user wants to ship their order to the UK. However, the user is located in France, and their preferred browser language is French (both available in another experience of your store). Once the user proceeds to the checkout, it will automatically switch to their location and language, despite being in a different store experience.
We hope this information clarifies any questions about the behaviour of Shopify Markets during the transition from the storefront cart to the checkout screen. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
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