- Short answer
- The backup region sets the currency, language and theme for buyers outside your active markets; they can browse but not check out.
- Not a market
- A setting that points to a country within one of your active markets.
- Default
- Your store's home country, set when you create the store.
- Also covers
- Customers in inactive markets and B2B company locations that match no market, with or without an address.
- Where to change it
- Settings > General > Store defaults > Backup Region; any country in an active market.
- Prices
- For countries outside your markets, pricing follows the backup region's market and its catalogs.
Which buyers get the backup region experience?
The backup region decides what customers who match none of your active markets see. It isn't a market but a setting that points to a country within one of them, and every store using Markets must have one.
Shopify lists three situations:
- A visitor's country is in no active market (markets for the US and Canada, a buyer in Australia).
- A B2B company location has no address and matches no market (which currency B2B buyers see).
- A B2B company location's address is in a country that no market for its customer type covers.
Customers in inactive markets are in the same position: they can't complete a purchase and get the backup region experience (deactivating a market).
What do those buyers see, and can they check out?
They see the currency, language and theme customizations of the market that holds your backup region country.
When a customer receives the backup region experience, they can browse your store and view products, but they can't complete a purchase.
Shopify's developer changelog says that for a country outside your markets, the storefront uses the backup region's market and its catalogs to set pricing; no Help Center page we read in October 2026 says which shipping rates or domain these buyers get.
To take their orders, add their country to an active market and set up shipping rates for it: Shopify requires shipping rates for every country you sell to.
How do you change the backup region?
It starts as your store's home country; you can switch it to any country contained within an active market:
- Settings
- General
- Store defaults
- Backup Region
Select the country in the Backup Region field, then click Save.
Shopify Markets doesn't use a primary market, and as of version 2025-04 the Markets APIs moved from the primary market to the backup region (check your Markets version).
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