Manage Multiple Shopify Stores: Organizations and Markets
To manage multiple Shopify stores, group them in an organization, which gives you centralized users and billing across stores; on Shopify Plus, the extra stores are expansion stores, up to nine of them next to your main store under one contract. Each store still has its own products, inventory, settings, apps and theme license, and nothing syncs between them by default. Before opening a second store at all, check whether one store with Markets covers what you want, because one catalog is far less work than two.
The rules below are Shopify’s own, from the Help Center pages on organizations, expansion stores, Markets and reports, read on October 23, 2026. Related store setup guides are in the running a store hub.
One store with Markets or several stores?
| You want to… | One store with Markets | Several stores |
|---|---|---|
| Sell in other countries, currencies and languages | Yes: cross-border markets, local currencies, languages, domains or subfolders per market | Possible, with more upkeep |
| Show different products or prices per country | Yes, with catalogs per market | Yes |
| Sell wholesale with negotiated prices | B2B markets; up to 3 active catalogs on Basic, Grow and Advanced | A separate B2B store |
| Run a different brand with its own look | Hard: one theme serves all markets, with customizations per market | Yes, one theme per store |
| Sell a different product line under the same brand | Collections in one store | A separate store if the experience must differ |
| Keep an employee or VIP store | Harder to keep separate in one store | A separate store is simpler |
If your reason is “another country”, start with Markets. Shopify’s Markets let you group countries, set local currencies with automatic exchange rates, control which products and prices each market sees, and use different domains, subfolders and languages per market; theme editor customization by market needs the Advanced plan or higher. If your reason is “another brand”, a second, separate store is usually right; on Shopify Plus note that expansion stores must carry the same brand as the main store.
Group stores in an organization
An organization is a group of stores with shared settings, managed with centralized users and billing. Stores that are not on Shopify Plus can be grouped into an organization; Shopify’s Help Center has pages on creating stores, grouping a store into an organization, removing one and viewing them. Stores on Shopify Plus are part of an organization by default and use expansion stores instead.
What an organization gives you: one place to add a user to several stores, and one billing view. What it does not give you: shared products, inventory or settings. Each store is still a separate store with its own plan.
Expansion stores on Shopify Plus
Expansion stores are additional .myshopify.com stores under the same organization and Plus contract. Shopify lists the typical uses:
- International stores: the same brand and products in another language, region or currency.
- Product line extensions under the same brand.
- B2B stores for wholesale customers.
- Employee or VIP stores.
- Physical retail locations with no online sales.
A Plus organization can have up to ten stores on the contract at no extra cost: one main store and nine expansion stores. Staging stores do not count toward the limit. Expansion stores must be extensions of the main brand, with the same store name and branding and the same types of goods, and must be billed in USD or INR. More than ten stores means contacting Shopify Support; a store above the contract limit starts as a trial store until Shopify adds it. Details are in our guide to Shopify expansion stores, and the plan itself in Shopify Plus.
What does not sync between stores
Shopify is explicit that each store in an organization operates independently:
- Products, collections and inventory are not shared or synced. A product added in one store does not appear in another.
- Store settings and configurations are separate; a change in one store is not reflected elsewhere.
- Apps are billed per store, not once for the organization.
- Theme licenses are per store. A paid theme imported into another store, including a staging store, is flagged as unlicensed until that store has its own license.
- Hard-coded file references in a theme imported into a new store keep pointing to files in the original store. Delete the file in the original store and the link breaks in the copy.
Shopify’s suggestion for keeping data aligned: third-party apps or an ERP system that syncs selected data, such as inventory, between stores. If the stores share stock from the same warehouses, plan that sync before launch; our guide to multi-warehouse inventory covers the locations side.
Running several stores day to day
- Users: add staff once at organization level and give each person only the stores they need.
- Reports: organizations with multi-store reporting can show data from several stores in one report, using the store menu in Shopify reports.
- Procedures: write down which tasks happen in every store (price changes, new products, policy updates), so nothing is changed in one and forgotten in another.
- Costs: count the plan, apps and theme license of every store, not only the first.
Frequently asked questions
Can I have two Shopify stores on one account? Yes. You can group several stores into an organization with centralized users and billing; on Shopify Plus, additional stores are expansion stores under the same contract, up to nine next to the main store. Each store still has its own data and settings.
Do I pay twice for two Shopify stores? Outside Shopify Plus, each store has its own plan. On Plus, up to ten stores (one main and nine expansion stores) are included in the contract at no extra cost. Apps are billed per store, and each store needs its own theme license.
Can two Shopify stores share inventory? Not by default: Shopify does not sync products, collections or inventory between stores. Shopify suggests third-party apps or an ERP system to sync data such as inventory between them.