Managed Markets & Merchant of Record
Compare Managed Markets with running Markets yourself, see who it suits by size and plan, and weigh Global-e against other merchants of record.
Common Questions
Is Managed Markets worth it for a brand doing under $5M in international sales, or is that too small to justify the fee?
Managed Markets, where Global-e acts as merchant of record, is not too small a bet under $5M of international sales. Shopify charges 3.5% per transaction, or 3.25% on Plus (Shopify Help Center, October 2026), so the fee shrinks with your volume. The real disqualifiers are business location, 35 prohibited or restricted categories and duties never refunded after fulfillment (Shopify Help Center, October 2026).
What's the honest, non-vendor-spin answer to 'should a $30M-GMV Shopify brand use Managed Markets', not Shopify's own pitch?
Managed Markets, Shopify's cross-border service, suits $30M brands while international sales are too small to staff, because its fee follows international sales, not revenue. On Shopify Plus that fee is 3.25%: $29,250 a year at 3% international, $292,500 at 30% (Shopify Help Center, October 2026; Deploi arithmetic). Shopify's "up to 40%" conversion claim rests on a before-and-after sales study with no control group described (shopify.com, Ernst & Young, October 2026).
What's Flow Commerce, and is it a real alternative to Shopify Managed Markets/Global-e?
Flow Commerce, a cross-border ecommerce software company, is not an alternative to Shopify's Managed Markets, because Global-e owns it. Global-e closed the purchase, valued at up to approximately $500 million, in January 2022 (Global-e investor relations, October 2026). Global-e is also the merchant of record behind Managed Markets (Shopify Help Center, October 2026), so both routes lead to one company.
Does Managed Markets support B2B/wholesale international orders, or is it DTC-only?
Managed Markets is direct-to-consumer (DTC) only: it doesn't support business-to-business (B2B) or wholesale orders. Shopify says "B2B orders aren't supported by Managed Markets", so you act as your own merchant of record for wholesale (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). International wholesale runs through Shopify B2B instead, on every plan from Basic up since April 2026 (Shopify Changelog, October 2026).
Is Managed Markets exclusive to Shopify Plus, or can Advanced-plan merchants use it too?
Managed Markets, Shopify's merchant-of-record service for cross-border sales, is not exclusive to Shopify Plus, because Shopify requires only the Basic plan or higher: Basic, Grow and Advanced stores pay 3.5% per transaction, against 3.25% on Plus (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). The real gate is geography: only businesses in the continental US, and certain stores in Canada and the UK, qualify (Shopify Help Center, October 2026).
Is there a Managed Markets case study showing real before/after conversion-rate numbers for a mid-market brand?
No published case study of Managed Markets, Shopify's cross-border service, gives before-and-after conversion rates. They report only percentage lifts, from 7% for NakedCashmere to "up to 180%" for Made by Mary, with no baseline, control group or method (shopify.com, shopify.com, October 2026), so none shows where conversion started. Shopify's "up to 40%" conversion claim comes from a before-and-after sales study with no control group described (shopify.com, Ernst & Young, October 2026).