Selling Across the US–Canada Border on Shopify: Currency, Duties, Taxes

Canada looks like the easiest international market a US brand could pick, and for Canadian brands the US is the obvious next step. In practice, cross-border ecommerce between the two runs into currency, duty, tax, shipping and SEO problems that only show up once real orders cross the border. This guide covers how to sell to Canada from the US on Shopify (and the other way around) without surprising your customers or your accountant.

A quick note before we start: this isn't legal or tax advice. Any thresholds and rules mentioned here are accurate as of this writing (2026). Trade rules between the US and Canada changed several times in 2025 and can change again, so confirm the specifics with your customs broker, carrier and accountant before you launch.

Start with Shopify Markets, not a second store

Selling in another country doesn't usually mean cloning your store. Shopify Markets lets you run Canada (or the US) as a separate market inside the same store, with its own currency, pricing rules, domain or subfolder, and language. You keep one catalog, one inventory pool and one admin.

What you set up per market:

• Currency: with Shopify Payments, Canadian shoppers see and pay in CAD (or US shoppers in USD), and you're paid out in your store's currency. Currency conversion fees apply, so check the current rates for your plan.
• Pricing: you can let Shopify convert prices automatically using exchange rates, add a percentage adjustment to cover extra costs, and apply rounding rules so you get clean prices like $49.00 CAD instead of $48.73. Depending on your plan, you can also set fixed prices for specific products in a market.
• Domains and URLs: each market can live on a subfolder (yourbrand.com/en-ca), a subdomain, or its own country domain (yourbrand.ca). More on the SEO side of that choice below.
• Language: you can publish translated content per market, including French for Canada.

A separate store makes sense when the business on the other side is genuinely different: a different catalog, team, apps or wholesale channel. That's where Shopify Plus expansion stores come in, covered in Shopify vs. Shopify Plus: when to upgrade. For most DTC brands, one store with two markets is simpler to run.

Don't treat French as optional if you sell into Quebec

Quebec has French-language requirements that generally apply to businesses selling to consumers there, and those requirements were tightened in recent years. If Quebec is a real target, plan for a proper fr-CA version of your storefront, including product pages, checkout text, emails and policies. Machine translation is a first draft, not a finished product. Get advice on what applies to your business, and budget translation time into the launch.

Duties and import taxes: decide who pays before you launch

Make this decision deliberately. There are two basic models:

• DDU (delivered duties unpaid, often written DAP now): the customer pays duties, import taxes and any carrier brokerage fees when the package arrives. It's cheaper for you up front, but the customer gets a bill they didn't expect at the door. Some of them refuse the package, and you pay to ship it back.
• DDP (delivered duties paid): you collect duties and import taxes at checkout (or absorb them) and the package arrives with nothing owed. The customer sees one total, the same way they would from a domestic store.

For DTC brands, DDP is almost always the better experience. Shopify can calculate and collect duties and import taxes at checkout for international markets, depending on your plan and setup, and several carriers and cross-border services offer DDP shipping that works with Shopify. Whichever you use, make sure the carrier knows the shipment is DDP, or the customer can be billed again at the door.

US brands shipping to Canada

Under CUSMA, low-value courier shipments from the US into Canada have had higher relief thresholds than most other countries: as of this writing, roughly CAD $40 for taxes and CAD $150 for duties. Below those values, a courier shipment generally clears without the customer owing that charge.

Two things trip brands up here. First, duty-free treatment under CUSMA depends on where the goods were made and whether they qualify as originating, not just on where they shipped from. Products manufactured overseas and shipped from a US warehouse can still owe Canadian duty. Second, these thresholds apply to courier shipments specifically. Postal shipments have been handled differently, so check how your carrier enters the goods.

Canadian brands shipping to the US

This changed a lot recently. For years, the US $800 de minimis exemption let most Canadian DTC parcels enter duty-free. In late August 2025, the US ended that exemption for imports from all countries, including Canada. As of this writing, low-value parcels to US consumers can be subject to duties and fees, and how much depends on the product, its origin and whether it qualifies under CUSMA.

If you built a US customer base when parcels crossed duty-free, revisit your shipping model. Options include switching to DDP so US customers aren't hit with charges on delivery, adjusting US pricing to cover the added landed cost, or moving inventory to a US-based 3PL and shipping domestically. Each has tradeoffs in cost, cash flow and tax obligations, so bring a customs broker into the decision.

Sales tax on both sides of the border, at a high level

Duties are charged at the border. Sales tax is a separate question: do you need to register and collect in the other country? The details depend on your volume, where inventory sits and how you ship, so treat this as a map for the conversation with a cross-border accountant.

Canada: GST/HST, PST and QST

Canada layers federal and provincial taxes. The federal GST applies nationwide. Several provinces combine it with their provincial tax into a single HST. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba charge their own PST, and Quebec charges QST. Registration thresholds exist at both the federal and provincial level, and some provinces have their own rules for out-of-province sellers.

Where your inventory sits matters a lot. Shipping from a US warehouse is treated differently from shipping out of a Canadian fulfillment center, and storing goods in Canada can bring registration obligations sooner. Talk to your accountant before moving inventory into a Canadian 3PL, not after.

United States: economic nexus by state

There's no federal sales tax in the US. Each state sets its own rules, and since the Supreme Court's 2018 Wayfair decision, most states with a sales tax require out-of-state sellers to register once they pass an economic nexus threshold based on sales into that state. Thresholds vary by state. Holding inventory in a state, including in a 3PL warehouse, can also create nexus there.

Shopify can calculate sales tax at checkout once you register in a jurisdiction and turn on collection there, but registering and filing are still your responsibility. Canadian brands should track sales by state from day one.

Shipping carriers and landed cost

Landed cost is what an order really costs to get to the customer: product, shipping, duties, import taxes and any brokerage or clearance fees. The total the customer sees at checkout should cover it, either through shipping rates, duties collected at checkout or prices adjusted for that market.

When choosing carriers for cross-border lanes, compare more than the headline rate:

• Brokerage fees: some couriers charge the recipient a brokerage or clearance fee on top of duties and taxes. On DDU shipments, this is often the charge customers complain about most.
• DDP support: confirm the carrier can bill duties and taxes to you rather than the recipient, and that it works with how you collect them in Shopify.
• Customs data: every product needs an accurate HS code, country of origin and customs description, set at the product level in Shopify. Missing data means delays and wrong duty calculations.
• Delivery promises: cross-border transit is slower and less predictable. Show realistic delivery windows per market.

As volume grows, many brands stock fast-moving SKUs with a 3PL across the border. That speeds delivery and removes per-parcel customs, but brings the tax considerations above into play.

Returns: plan for them before the first order ships

Cross-border returns are slow, and a return label back across customs can cost more than the item. Decide your approach up front:

• Offer a local returns address in the destination country, through a 3PL or returns service, so customers aren't shipping internationally.
• For low-value items, a refund without requiring the item back is sometimes cheaper than processing the return.
• Be clear in your returns policy about whether duties and taxes are refunded. Recovering duties on returned goods is sometimes possible, but it takes paperwork, so ask your broker how it works.
• Publish a market-specific returns page.

Storefront and SEO: hreflang and separate market URLs

For each country's shoppers to find the right pages in search, each market needs its own crawlable URLs. A single URL that quietly swaps currency by IP gives search engines only one version to index.

• Use hreflang: tag each version with en-US, en-CA and, if you have it, fr-CA, so search engines show the right version in each country. Shopify adds hreflang tags automatically for market domains and subfolders, but check the output in your page source and fix any custom theme code that overrides it.
• Don't force redirects by IP: search engine crawlers mostly crawl from US IP addresses. If you auto-redirect everyone in the US to the US version, crawlers may never see your Canadian pages. Use a country selector or a dismissible banner that suggests the right market instead.
• Subfolder vs. country domain: subfolders inherit your main domain's authority and are simpler to run. A .ca domain sends a stronger local signal and can build trust with Canadian shoppers, but it starts from scratch on authority. For most brands, subfolders are the pragmatic choice.
• Localize content: currency, shipping and returns pages, delivery estimates, and Canadian spelling where it matters.

Test each market's checkout on a real phone, too. Currency selectors and duty lines add friction that compounds on mobile. Our post on mobile checkout abandonment fixes covers what to look for.

Cross-border Shopify launch checklist

1. Decide whether you need a new market in your existing store or a separate expansion store.
2. Create the market in Shopify Markets and set currency, price adjustments and rounding rules.
3. Choose your URL structure (subfolder, subdomain or country domain) and confirm hreflang output for en-US, en-CA and fr-CA if relevant.
4. If you're targeting Quebec, plan and review French translations for the storefront, checkout, emails and policies.
5. Add HS codes, country of origin and customs descriptions to every product you'll ship across the border.
6. Choose DDP or DDU, and if DDP, confirm duties collected at checkout line up with how your carrier bills them.
7. Confirm current de minimis and CUSMA rules for your products with a customs broker.
8. Review Canadian and US sales tax registration obligations with an accountant, especially before using a 3PL on the other side of the border.
9. Set up carrier rates and realistic delivery windows for the new market.
10. Write market-specific shipping and returns pages, including how duties are handled on returns.
11. Replace any forced IP redirects with a country selector or suggestion banner.
12. Place test orders in each market on mobile and desktop, then check the order, the duties and taxes charged, and the shipping label end to end.

Planning a cross-border Shopify setup?

Most of this is configuration and decisions, not a rebuild. The tricky part is getting Markets, checkout, customs data and SEO to line up so customers on both sides see accurate totals and the right pages. If you're planning a US–Canada expansion and want a second set of eyes on the setup, see our e-commerce services or get in touch. We're happy to talk it through.