TL;DR
Managed Markets had interest, but low activation. Merchants didn't fully understand what it would do to their store, and many needed direct conversations with the product team before they felt comfortable turning it on. As content lead, I focused on simplifying onboarding and making the value clearer, resulting in a 3× increase in activations.
Fixing a high friction, high uncertainty situation.

Managed Markets was designed to help merchants sell internationally without taking on the full operational burden themselves. But, before this relaunch, onboarding was complicated and activation involved multiple steps.

Managed Markets before state — apply screen Managed Markets before state — application approved Managed Markets before state — application in review
Eligible for Managed Markets → Apply → Application review → Approved → Activate

Even for merchants who were a strong fit, the process was a lot of work for something they didn't fully understand. Less than 20% of eligible merchants activated because they didn't know if they could trust it to handle a high-stakes part of their business. Without that confidence, the easiest choice was to do nothing.

Making it easier to say yes.

We knew we needed to make the decision feel like a no-brainer. That meant reworking onboarding to simplify the experience to a single toggle, and finding the right value prop that could help merchants quickly understand the purpose of Managed Markets and trust activating on their own instead of reaching out to the product team.

Before
  • 1Confirm eligibility
  • 2Submit application
  • 3Wait for review
  • 4Receive approval
  • 5Activate

To understand how restrictions, taxes, and shipping were handled, merchants had to cross-reference multiple help docs and scattered areas of Shopify Admin.

After
Global / bulk apply
Per-market toggle
The value prop had to land immediately.

Onboarding needed to answer the question "Why should I trust this enough to turn it on?" before a merchant even reached the toggle. That shifted the approach from explaining features to communicating outcomes.

Managed Markets onboarding screen — Skip the hard parts and grow internationally

The core framing — Skip the hard parts and grow internationally — became the foundation for onboarding.

Instead of explaining the system, the focus shifted to what it removes:

  • surprise fees
  • operational complexity
  • manual handling of taxes and duties

This allowed the experience to resonate with experienced cross-border sellers, feel approachable to new sellers, and reduce hesitation across the board.

Skip the hard parts and grow internationally
↓
No surprise fees
Less operational complexity
Taxes and duties handled
↓
homecards banners onboarding activation states lifecycle emails

The messaging aligned across every surface a merchant might touch. We looked across Shopify.com, Admin, and emails to reinforce the same story. This ensured we used every opportunity to strengthen our value prop, and merchants didn't have to re-learn the product as they moved through the experience.

Release into the wild.

Merchants no longer needed to join forums or speak directly with the product team to understand Managed Markets. The onboarding experience could carry that explanation on its own.

What used to require conversation became something merchants could move through independently.

The impact showed up quickly.

3×
increase in merchant activations at launch
continued growth
in the months following launch, without additional pushes
low churn
little need for reactive retention work after activation