Set up stores and feeds for multiple countries

Magento supports the very useful feature of creating multiple stores that target different countries. You can setup storeviews that have a different language or currency, while re-using the same product catalog, categories and promotions, even the same customer base.

There are many ways to achieve this setup: some are easier to configure, but more restrictive, while others are a bit more involved, but offer more flexibility.

However, to make sure you adhere to the Google Shopping policies, there's one particular way to setup Magento that has proven to be the most efficient.

Conditions for product pages

A shopping feed must be submitted to a specific Country. Every feed will naturally contain links to the products on your website, links that will apply to the feed's Country.

Google requires all Product pages to adhere to some standard rules. The most important are:

1. The Page must show the exact product as in the feed, with the same name, image and description
   1. this information must be visible at all times, and must not require a login
2. The price and currency must match exactly the values submitted in the feed
   
   1. Specifically, JavaScript or cookies cannot be used to change the currency on page load

3. The page language must match the country of the feed

Magento setup

Let's take an example: we have a clothing store that sells the same products in the U.S. and Canada, and wants to also launch in the UK and France.

The best way to set this up is to have 2 Magento websites, and 5 store views.

• one Magento website for the US and Canada, since they are already an established business there
  • US has one store view
  • Canada has two store views - one for English, and one for French
• and another website for the UK and France, to allow for different products and special promotions targeting this new Market
  • the UK has one store view
  • and France has another
• (if you don't need special treatment for the EU stores, a good alternative is to have just one website for all storeviews)

Each country must have their own store view, so you can safely and easily do these settings required by Google Shopping:

1. Languages - France will require product pages in French; for Canada, you can choose between French and English, or better yet have both, one in each store view
2. Currency - every country needs a different currency

a. Go to the Store View level to set this up for each of the store views 

b. For example, For US, set USD as the Default Display currency, and the only Allowed currency. (see Fig 9.4)

Fig 9.4 Set currency

[missing screenshot: Screen Shot 2015-03-06 at 17.36.31.png]

Tax Settings

1. 1. US and Canada pages must not include taxes in the price
      
   2. UK and French however, do need to display prices including tax (you can choose to display both)

   3. remember to do this for the feed settings as well, for the price and sale_price columns

Frequently asked questions

1. Can I submit the same feed to more than one country?
   1. We do not recommend it, and that's because of the differences in pricing (tax/no tax), currency and language. Any mismatch in any one of the 3 will not work.
   2. Even if you do convert prices manually, after the feed is generated, you still need to have Product pages that use that currency / language
   3. Switching the currency with JavaScript / ajax / cookies (default currency switcher) will probably not work.
2. Can I have multi-currency on one store view?
   1. No - Magento uses cookies to switch currencies. While this is acceptable for users, the marketplace crawler may not understand it.