Managed Markets & Merchant of Record
Is there a Managed Markets case study showing real before/after conversion-rate numbers for a mid-market brand?
No published figure exists. Here is the honest answer
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).
- Case studies with before-and-after rates
- None foundShopify's Managed Markets case studies give percentage lifts and sometimes a window, but no baseline conversion rate, control group or method.Sources: Shopify (NakedCashmere Unlocks 149% Growth in International Sales with Managed Markets, Beekman 1802 scales to over 150 countries in weeks using Managed Markets, WOLFpak boosts global sales by 433% with Managed Markets, How SuitShop Uses Shopify Plus and Managed Markets to Scale Without Limits, Impact Dog Crates fetches 164% global sales growth with Managed Markets from Shopify, Made by Mary Grows International Orders by 90% with Managed Markets)
- Conversion lifts reported
- 7% to up to 180%NakedCashmere: 7% growth in conversion globally in 4.5 months. Made by Mary: international order conversion rates up by up to 180%, with no window stated.Sources: Shopify (NakedCashmere Unlocks 149% Growth in International Sales with Managed Markets, Made by Mary Grows International Orders by 90% with Managed Markets)
- EY sample
- 567 US-based merchantsShopify-provided transaction data as of April 2024, 12 months before adoption against up to 12 after; about 60% had only six months after.Source: EY (Beyond borders: Mastering global trade with integrated technology)
- What EY's 40% averages
- Only merchants whose sales grewMore than 80% of merchants grew international sales in the 12 months after adoption, and their average growth was above 40%.Source: EY (Beyond borders: Mastering global trade with integrated technology)
Deploi’s call
No controlled before-and-after conversion study for Managed Markets exists, and we would rather say so than rank for the question with a vendor case study. What exists is one large observational pre/post study and a set of Shopify case studies that report lifts without baselines.
WaitTurn on Managed Markets on the fee case alone when
- International sales are under roughly $2M a year or spread across 10 or more countries, where Deploi's cross-border stack record scores Managed Markets WAIT (Deploi decision record, October 2026).
- The business case closes on the fee against registrations and filings, with no conversion lift counted.
- You can record conversion in your current destinations for a full quarter before activation.
CustomizePrice your own stack first when
- Two to four markets carry more than roughly $2M a year, which the record scores CUSTOMIZE (Deploi decision record, October 2026).
- The case closes only if a published lift, such as Shopify's 40% figure, holds for your store (Shopify, October 2026).
Basis: Build Your Cross-Border Stack or Use Managed Markets on Shopify?, our Build vs. Buy decision record, scored DEPENDS.
Does any Managed Markets case study publish before-and-after conversion rates?
No: Shopify's Managed Markets case studies report conversion lifts as percentages, with no before or after rate, no control group and no stated method. Whether Managed Markets pays its way under $5M of international sales shouldn't rest on these figures, because none shows where conversion started. The lifts run from 7% to "up to 180%" (Shopify, October 2026):
| Brand | Conversion figure in the case study | Window stated |
|---|---|---|
| NakedCashmere | 7% growth in conversion globally | 4.5 months post-launch |
| Beekman 1802 | 23% increase in overall international conversion rate | Nearly six months |
| WOLFpak | 30% increase in global conversion rate | The last 12 months |
| SuitShop | 32% increase in conversion rates for international orders | None |
| Impact Dog Crates | 77% growth in global conversion | Listed as year over year; the text says six months after starting |
| Made by Mary | Increased international order conversion rates by up to 180% | None |
Beekman 1802, a Shopify Plus brand also sold through Ulta and Target, is the closest to a mid-market case in Deploi's reading, and its 23% comes with no starting rate either (Shopify, October 2026).
What does the EY study behind Shopify's 40% figure measure?
The Ernst & Young (EY) study behind Shopify's 40% figure measures international sales growth among adopters, before and after adoption, not conversion against a control group. EY's one-page summary describes Shopify-provided transaction data for US-based merchants as of April 2024, from 567 organizations, "Comparing data from 12 months pre-Managed Markets up to 12 months post adoption" (EY, October 2026). It adds: "Approximately 60% of companies only have data for six months post adoption."
| EY figure | What it measures |
|---|---|
| 83% | Merchants that sold to more countries after adoption |
| More than 80% | Merchants with some international sales growth in the 12 months after adoption |
| Above 40% | Average international sales growth among those merchants |
| Greater than 200% | Increase for the top 100 merchants |
So the 40% average leaves out the merchants whose international sales did not grow, and EY describes no control group. EY also surveyed 132 organizations using Managed Markets in April 2024; a survey records what merchants say, not what they sold.
Where do Shopify's own pages describe the same results differently?
Shopify's own pages attach the same results to different metrics, so check the case study behind each figure before you quote it.
Conversion and sales are different metrics with different denominators. A brand that opens ten new destinations grows international sales without its conversion rate moving at all. So carry the 40% figure as international sales growth, because that is how EY describes it; how a $30M brand should carry it in a board paper shows the treatment.
Why does no controlled Managed Markets study exist?
No controlled Managed Markets study exists because adoption isn't random, no counterfactual store exists and the product changes the checkout itself.
- Adoption is not random. Brands turn on Managed Markets in the same quarter they decide to invest in international. A before-and-after comparison captures that decision, not the product.
- There is no counterfactual store. You cannot run the same brand with and without a merchant of record over the same period, and nobody funds a randomized trial on their own revenue.
- The mechanism changes the baseline. Since 24 August 2026, Managed Markets collects duties and taxes at checkout wherever it supports delivered duty paid (DDP) shipping (Shopify Changelog, October 2026). That changes the checkout, the price shown and the abandonment profile at once, so even a clean before-and-after comparison cannot attribute a lift to one of them.
How do you measure Managed Markets' conversion effect on your own store?
Measure the effect yourself with a before-and-after comparison on a fixed list of destinations, read at checkout, with returns and an exit criterion tracked.
- Hold the destination list fixed. Measure conversion in the destinations you already sold to, before and after, and exclude every new market. That removes the largest confound in the vendor numbers.
- Measure at checkout, not the session. The mechanism is duty transparency at checkout, so add-to-cart to order is where it should show up. If it shows up in sessions, something else moved.
- Write the exit criterion before you start. A number that would make you turn it off, dated and agreed by the person who signs the invoice. A pilot that includes a deliberate customs exception also tests the support path merchants judge Managed Markets on.
- Track returns at the same time. Duties and value-added tax (VAT) stay paid on returns: "After the Managed Markets order is fulfilled, refunds aren't provided for duties, customs fees, or VAT" (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). So a conversion lift on a high-return category can lose margin and still look like a win.
When should you not trust a Managed Markets conversion figure?
Don't trust a Managed Markets conversion figure that has no baseline, overlaps new-market expansion, swaps sales for conversion or comes from the merchant alone.
Deploi’s point of view
Our own position, from building on Shopify. Kept apart from the sourced facts above.
- What we’ve seen
- Every Managed Markets business case we review carries the 40% figure, and none of them carries the study design. The design is what determines whether the number belongs in a forecast or in a hypothesis, and it takes one sentence to state.
- Where we disagree
- The category treats vendor-published case studies as evidence. A case study has a baseline, a window and a method. Shopify's Managed Markets case studies carry a percentage, sometimes a window, and no baseline or method. We refuse to quote them as if they were controlled results, and this page names the brands and figures so a reader can check them for themselves.
- What this page adds
- the EY study's actual design, its 60% six-month data caveat and the fact that its 40% average covers only merchants that grew; the metric substitutions between Shopify's marketing page, its EY report page and its own case studies; the conversion lifts in Shopify's case studies with their missing baselines; and a fixed-destination-list method for running a defensible pre/post on your own store.
Decision records behind this answer
When this answer changes
- Shopify publishes a Managed Markets case study with before-and-after conversion rates.
- Ernst & Young or Shopify publishes the full study's method, a control group or an average across all adopters.
- Shopify changes the "Boost conversion by up to 40%" line or its footnote.
- Shopify reconciles the EY report page's brand cards with the case studies behind them.
Related questions
This follows from Is Managed Markets worth it for a brand doing under $5M in international sales, or is that too small to justify the fee?
- 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.
- What's the actual merchant satisfaction/complaint rate with Managed Markets compared to running Markets DIY?
Shopify's Managed Markets has no published merchant satisfaction or complaint rate, and neither does running Shopify Markets yourself.
Sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these. Official and vendor pages are checked on the date shown; Deploi records are our own published decisions.
- Shopify, NakedCashmere Unlocks 149% Growth in International Sales with Managed Markets
- Shopify, Beekman 1802 scales to over 150 countries in weeks using Managed Markets
- Shopify, WOLFpak boosts global sales by 433% with Managed Markets
- Shopify, How SuitShop Uses Shopify Plus and Managed Markets to Scale Without Limits
- Shopify, Impact Dog Crates fetches 164% global sales growth with Managed Markets from Shopify
- Shopify, Made by Mary Grows International Orders by 90% with Managed Markets
- EY, Beyond borders: Mastering global trade with integrated technology
- Shopify, Simplify Global Commerce with Shopify Managed Markets
- Shopify, EY report on mastering global trade
- Shopify, Caden Lane Nurtures 692% International Sales Growth with Managed Markets
- Shopify Changelog, Managed Markets is ending Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDU) support
- Shopify Help Center, Fulfilling and managing Managed Markets orders
- Deploi Build vs. Buy, Build Your Cross-Border Stack or Use Managed Markets on Shopify?