Opening WeatherTech to the EU: New Markets, Domains, VAT and GDPR on One Shopify Store

WeatherTech's Swiss store, weathertech.ch, was built for Switzerland and Liechtenstein: Swiss francs, Swiss VAT and Swiss shipping. Expanding to the European Union meant much more than translating the shop. It needed new markets, their own domains, prices in euros, European VAT, a consent and privacy setup that works under the GDPR, and a way to launch without showing an unfinished store. We set all of that up on the same Shopify store, starting with France and Luxembourg.

Project brief

WeatherTech's European branch wanted to sell its custom-fit automotive accessories to customers in France and Luxembourg without running a second store. Customers there expect a local domain, a French-language shop, prices in euros that already include VAT, the legal pages and consumer rights that European law requires, and cookie consent that follows the GDPR.

The goal was a single store that serves the Swiss market as before and adds the new markets alongside it, with the new markets kept private until they were ready.

Goals

• Add the new markets France and Luxembourg as separate markets next to the Swiss one, each with its own settings.
• Give each market its own domain A local domain for each country, instead of sending everyone to weathertech.ch.
• Sell in euros Prices in euros, shown with VAT included, as European customers expect.
• Handle VAT correctly VAT at the customer's country rate, and a VAT invoice for each order.
• Comply with privacy rules A privacy policy, legal pages and cookie consent that follow the GDPR.
• Launch without a half-finished store Keep the new domains behind a holding page until everything was tested.

What we set up

New markets

In Shopify Markets we added France and Luxembourg as markets of their own next to the Swiss and Liechtenstein market, which stays the primary market in Swiss francs. Each new market has its own currency, domain and languages, and its own shipping options. The store now ships to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France and Luxembourg.

A domain per market

Each new market has a country domain: weathertech.fr for France and weathertech.lu for Luxembourg, both connected to the same Shopify store. Each market uses its own country domain rather than a sub-folder of weathertech.ch, so a customer in France or Luxembourg lands on a local address.

Languages

Both European markets open in French by default, and customers can switch to English, German or Italian. The storefront, navigation, product pages and policies read in French.

Currency in euros

The European markets use the euro as their currency. Prices appear in euros throughout the store, from the free-shipping message ("free standard delivery from €100") to the product page and the cart, and the header shows the market and currency the customer is in (for example "FR (EUR €)"). The Swiss market keeps its Swiss franc prices.

VAT

Prices in the European markets include VAT, and the product page marks them as such (the French "TTC"). For France and Luxembourg, VAT is charged at the rate of the customer's country and reported through the EU One-Stop Shop (OSS) scheme, so the business does not need a separate VAT registration in every country. The shipping policy states this plainly for customers: orders in France and Luxembourg are subject to the VAT in force in the local market.

VAT invoices

Customers who need a VAT invoice get one issued from the Shopify order, either from the order email or created by hand from the Shopify admin on request, showing the VAT charged on the order.

Privacy, cookies and the GDPR

European customers have specific rights over their data and their purchases, so the store carries the legal basics in French: a privacy policy, terms of use, shipping and refund policies, a legal notice (mentions légales), a page for withdrawing from a contract, which reflects the right of withdrawal for online purchases in the EU, and an accessibility statement. All of them are linked from the footer on every page. A consent app handles cookie and GDPR consent on the store.

Shipping and returns for the EU

Orders to France and Luxembourg are shipped by DHL from a partner warehouse in Germany, while Swiss and Liechtenstein orders ship from Switzerland with Swiss Post. The shipping and refund policies state the return address for each region, and the cart shows the delivery options for the customer's country at checkout.

The holding page

While we were building and testing, weathertech.fr and weathertech.lu stayed behind Shopify's password page, a holding page that kept the new shops private. That let us connect the domains and work on the markets, languages, VAT, shipping and checkout on the real domains, and only open the doors to customers when the shops were ready.

On a phone

The European shops use the same responsive theme as the Swiss store, so on a phone the euro prices, the free-shipping promise and the vehicle finder look and work the same as on desktop.

How we worked

Plan the markets

We decided which countries to open first (France and Luxembourg), which languages each needed and how they should relate to the existing Swiss market.

Configure the store

We added the markets, connected the domains, set the currency and prices, set up VAT and shipping for each market, and translated the content.

Meet the legal requirements

We added the legal pages and the consent setup, and described VAT, returns and shipping clearly for customers.

Test behind the holding page

We worked on the real domains behind the holding page, then opened them to the public.

Outcome

WeatherTech's single Shopify store now serves three European countries: Switzerland and Liechtenstein in Swiss francs, and France and Luxembourg in euros, each market with its own domain, languages, shipping, VAT and legal setup. The work continues, including the stock and fulfilment arrangements that sit behind the European markets.