Markets enables merchants to easily and efficiently optimize their storefront for different geographic regions from one central back-end admin and a single storefront.
Expansion stores are separate Shopify stores that require individual setup to provide optimized, region-specific experiences to buyers. While expansion stores offer a higher degree of flexibility for some elements of localization, they also require a significant amount of setup time to optimize and manage each store.
Whether a merchant uses Markets, expansion stores, or a combination of both may be dependent on many factors in their unique global selling strategy. While Markets is not a replacement for expansion stores, it’s a solution that provides most of the same benefits and a more streamlined process.