Connect Stores
Learn how to redirect between multiple Shopify Expansion stores
For some brands, it's often preferred to sell cross-border using multiple stores, along with the ability to sell and get paid in different currencies. In this way, they create multiple Expansion stores for some strategic countries.
In Orbe, we have developed a feature that allows connecting these multiple Expansion stores and Shopify Markets simultaneously and redirecting the customers to the right shopping experience.
This feature is included in the Orbe Plus Plan and allows redirecting up to 4 stores in the same plan.
For more stores, contact us for a custom Enterprise Plan that allows connecting as many stores as you need.
Each expansion store has a different platform domain. For example, "store-us.myshopify.com", "store-europe.myshopify.com" and "store-international.myshopify.com"
In this article, we will explain how you can connect these multiple Shopify Stores:
How to connect your multiple stores with Geolocation
Step 1. Upgrade your plan to Plus in your Primary Store
Open Orbe and go to the "Plans" section. Click on "Go Plus", then "Approve" the payment.
Remember that by choosing the annual plan, you can enjoy a 20% annual savings, and if you cancel your plan within the first 30 days, we will refund your money.
Alternatively, if the store is still in a Free Plan, you can go to the "Connect Stores" section and click "This is the Primary Store". This button will send you to the "Plans" page to upgrade your plan to Plus and continue the configuration.
Consider that with one single subscription to our Plus plan, you can redirect up to 4 stores.
Step 2. Add your Primary Store
Go to the "Connect Stores" section in the store where you paid for the Plus Plan
Click on "Get Started" to add it as your "Primary Store"
Copy the code that Orbe generates and paste it into your Sponsored Stores.
Step 3. Add your Sponsored Stores
Go to the "Connect Stores" section in all your secondary stores, add them as "Sponsored Stores" clicking "Sponsor this store", and paste the code generated in your primary store:
Remember to repeat this step for all the Expansion stores you want to connect.
Step 4. Fix the Duplications
If there are duplications in your Shopify Markets settings, where you set up sales to a specific country from two different stores, Orbe will detect this and provide you with the option to choose which store to redirect your customers to when they visit your website from those countries.
For instance, if you've connected two stores, and both have shipping settings for Spain, you'll need to select the correct shopping experience for your Spanish users:
If you connect more than two stores, make sure to paste the code into all of your stores before selecting the appropriate store for each country. Orbe requires all stores to be connected in order to read and identify all the duplications within your Markets settings.
Orbe can identify duplications and offer choices for designating the right store for each country. However, we strongly recommend resolving this matter directly within your Markets settings.
For example, if you plan to ship to Spain from orbe-helpcenter.myshopify.com, it's advisable to remove Spain from the Markets settings on orbe-US.myshopify.com
Orbe always ensures that your customers make purchases from the appropriate store, so there's no need to have Spain listed in both stores.
Remember, if you modify your Markets settings, you must "Refresh Data" from Orbe, as explained in this article.
Settings
When connecting different stores with Orbe, you can decide how you want to handle redirects between stores. You have two different options:
Redirect to Homepage in the correct store.
This option is recommended for expansion stores without the same URL structure to avoid 404 errors by redirecting users away from nonexistent pages.
Redirect to the equivalent page in the correct store.
It is recommended if you have the same URL structure across all your domains and wish to redirect customers to the exact page they landed on, but in the appropriate shopping experience.
Let's illustrate this with an example. Imagine your customer arrives at:
If you have this option activated, in this case, the redirection will take them to the same product in Store B:
However, if this option is disabled, they will be redirected to the home page of Store B:
Store B Home: https://orbeapp.com/
Exclude URLs
Geolocation is a robust tool, but there are occasions where excluding specific URLs becomes essential. Consider the scenario where your product URLs remain consistent across all stores, but the shared blog section shouldn't trigger the geolocation popup.
By providing the URLs for exclusion, users can navigate shared sections like the blog without being redirected based on their IP address.
Illustrative Example
Imagine your brand has separate stores for Spain, the United States, and Australia, with a common blog across all three. If the blog is specifically available in the U.S. store, excluding blog URLs ensures that users from Spain can freely explore the blog without geolocation interference.
Let's delve deeper. If a Spanish user, starting from the blog, navigates to a specific product page, on the first visit, the popup will suggest their European location. On subsequent visits, with saved preferences, Orbe automatically redirects them to the correct experience.
To achieve this, simply add "/blogs/blog/*" to exclude all blog-related URLs from Orbe's functionality. Consequently, Orbe will remain inactive on those pages, and there will be no redirection.
Keep in mind that the asterisk (*) in the URL pattern includes all the content after the specified URL. If you wish to disable the full path redirect for a specific page only, make sure to add the complete URL of that particular page.
Occasionally, you may need to include multiple URLs. In such cases, add several URLs by separating them with commas. Ensure the URLs are added without the domain, like this: "/collections/all, /products/example".
By managing URL exclusions, you have greater control over when and where Orbe's geolocation features are active.
Enable the popup in all your stores
After connecting and syncing your markets, don't forget to enable the popup in all your stores. If you have any questions about customizing it, please refer to the following article.
Redirect Users out of Shopify based on Location
Let's consider a scenario: You have a Shopify store for your European customers and a Magento store for your U.S. customers. Orbe can seamlessly connect these two stores. When a user from the U.S. visits your European store, they will be automatically redirected to your Magento store for a smoother shopping experience.
However, it's important to note that Orbe is currently compatible only with Shopify and not with other e-commerce platforms. This means that European users visiting the U.S. store (Magento) won't be redirected to the Shopify store.
To clarify, Orbe's redirection is unidirectional, going from Shopify to other platforms and not the other way around.
If you're interested in this feature or have any questions, kindly complete this form to provide the necessary details. Our team will review your submission and implement it through a custom development.
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