Collect Per-Market Fees at Checkout

As part of the Shopify Editions Fall 2026 rollout, merchants are getting a long-requested tool: the ability to add required, fixed-amount fees directly at checkout. This new feature allows stores to apply specific charges, such as environmental handling fees or bottle deposits, based on the products in the cart and, crucially, the customer's market.

This gives merchants a native way to comply with local regulations or pass on specific costs without relying on apps or manual workarounds. The fee appears as a distinct line item that customers cannot remove, providing transparency about the final cost before payment.

What are fees at checkout, and how do per-market fees work?

Additional fees are required, fixed-amount charges added automatically to a customer's cart during checkout. Unlike optional add-ons, customers cannot edit or decline these fees. They are designed for mandatory charges required by law or for specific product handling, not for selling services or optional products.

The "per-market" functionality is the key update. You can create a fee and have it apply only to customers in specific countries or regions you've defined in your Shopify Markets setup. This allows you to, for example, add a recycling fee for electronics sold in one country without affecting customers elsewhere.

These fees are managed from the Taxes, duties, and fees section of your Shopify admin. They are separate from shipping costs and duties, appearing as their own line item to ensure the customer understands every part of their total charge.

A worked example: A German e-waste fee

Imagine a Canadian store that sells high-end headphones internationally. Germany, a key market, has strict e-waste laws under the ElektroG legislation. To comply, the store must collect a fee to cover recycling costs. Using the new feature, they can create a €4.50 fee that applies only to products in their "Electronics" collection.

When a customer from Germany adds these headphones to their cart, Shopify automatically adds the €4.50 fee at checkout. A customer from the United States buying the same product would not see this fee. This allows the merchant to meet their legal obligations in Germany without impacting conversion rates in other markets.

This fee is not a tax; it is part of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. The money collected is later remitted to a designated recycling organization. Failure to comply can result in fines up to €100,000 and the products being removed from the German market. The fee mechanism at checkout makes this compliance auditable and straightforward.

The Compliance-Conversion Trade-off

Implementing mandatory fees introduces a critical trade-off between legal compliance and customer conversion. While necessary, a new, unexpected line item at checkout can increase cart abandonment. A customer who was not expecting an extra charge, even a small one, may lose trust or reconsider their purchase at the final step.

The key to managing this trade-off is transparency *before* checkout. Merchants should clearly explain the fee on the relevant product pages and perhaps in a site-wide banner for affected markets. Stating "A legally required €4.50 recycling fee will be added for customers in Germany" sets expectations early and frames the charge as a regulatory requirement, not an arbitrary store policy.

Quantifying the trade-off with real numbers

A small drop in conversion can seem less costly than a large fine. But the numbers add up. Imagine your German market generates €200,000 in annual sales. Adding a mandatory fee causes a modest 1.5% drop in your conversion rate. This translates to €3,000 in lost revenue for the year. That loss is real, but it is a fraction of a potential €100,000 fine for non-compliance.

The decision becomes a calculated business risk. The cost of inaction, the fine, is a fixed, catastrophic number. The cost of action, lost sales, is a variable, ongoing percentage. This framing makes the choice clear. The goal is not to avoid the fee, but to mitigate its impact on conversion through maximum transparency long before the customer reaches checkout.

Who can use them today, given the early access status, and who is not eligible?

This feature is currently in an early access phase, meaning it is only available to selected Shopify stores. Shopify is gradually rolling it out and reviewing stores for eligibility. Merchants interested in using it must formally request access.

There is one significant restriction noted in the documentation: stores that use Shopify POS are not eligible for the early access program. This suggests the initial focus is purely on online checkout for now. Shopify has not announced a date for general availability or for when POS-enabled stores might gain access.

The cost of this limitation can be high for omnichannel brands. A business that sells both online and in-person may need to collect the same environmental fee in both channels. Being ineligible for the feature forces them to manage two separate processes, increasing administrative overhead and the risk of inconsistent compliance between their online and physical stores.

This also creates a significant accounting headache. Revenue from fees collected automatically online must be reconciled with fees added manually (and sometimes inconsistently) through POS. Proving compliance to a regulator becomes much harder when the data lives in two different systems and relies on manual staff actions. The risk of human error during a busy checkout is high.

Because access is limited, merchants should not plan immediate, critical business functions around this feature until their store has been officially accepted into the program. It's a feature to be aware of and plan for, not one that is universally available today.

How do you request access?

Merchants who want to use the additional fees feature must fill out an official early access request form provided by Shopify. After the form is submitted, Shopify reviews the store's eligibility for the program.

While Shopify does not publish its selection criteria, a strong request likely demonstrates a clear, legally mandated need. A merchant selling electronics into the EU with documented EPR requirements is a more compelling candidate than a store looking to add a generic "handling fee" without a specific regulatory justification.

Before submitting, have your documentation ready. This includes identifying the specific laws or regulations that require the fee, the exact products or collections it applies to, and the markets where it is necessary. A well-prepared request shows you have a serious use case and are ready to implement the feature correctly.

To make your case stronger, provide direct links to the official government or regulatory text that mandates the fee. A simple document listing the products, the target market, and the relevant legal clause makes the Shopify reviewer's job easier. This demonstrates you have done your homework and have a legitimate, urgent need for the feature, increasing your chances of being accepted.

It's important to understand that submitting the form does not guarantee access. Shopify's documentation states that you will only be contacted if your store is accepted into the early access program. There is no timeline provided for the review process, so merchants should monitor their communications from Shopify.

This process ensures that Shopify can gather feedback from a controlled group of merchants and refine the feature before a wider release. It also means that for now, patience is required for those who are not immediately accepted.

The best customer experience is one where there are no surprises, especially about the final price. Giving merchants the tools to be transparent is essential.

Can a fee apply to products, variants and collections at the same time?

No, a single fee rule must be configured to apply to either specific products and their variants or to specific collections, but not both simultaneously. When creating a fee, you must choose whether its logic will be based on individual products or on collections.

For example, you could create a fee that applies to three specific laptop models. Alternatively, you could create a fee that applies to every item in your "Electronics" collection. You cannot, however, create one rule that applies to two specific laptops *and* your "Audio Equipment" collection.

An edge case: Excluding one product from a collection

This "either/or" rule creates a difficult edge case. Imagine you have a "Beverages" collection with 100 drinks, and 99 of them require a bottle deposit. One drink comes in a pouch and is exempt. The intuitive approach would be to apply the fee to the "Beverages" collection and exclude the one pouch product. This is not possible.

The only workaround is to create a product-based fee instead of a collection-based one. You would have to manually add all 99 bottled drinks to the rule. This is time-consuming to set up and creates a significant maintenance burden. Every time a new bottled drink is added to the store, a manager must remember to update the fee rule, a classic source of human error.

The cost of this error is direct. If a new product is added but not included in the fee rule, you are failing to collect a legally required fee, creating a compliance gap. If a product is mistakenly added, you are overcharging customers, which can lead to support complaints and damage brand trust.

If you have complex needs, you can create multiple fee rules. For instance, one fee could handle a bottle deposit for your "Beverages" collection, while a separate fee could apply a specific handling charge to a single fragile product.

How do you limit a fee to chosen markets, and in which currency is it set?

You can restrict a fee to specific markets directly from the fee setup page in your Shopify admin. The default setting is for a fee to apply to all customers, but you can change this to "Markets" and then select the specific countries or regions where the fee should be collected.

Regarding currency, a fee is typically set in your store's primary currency. However, if you apply a fee only to selected markets that use a different currency, you have the option to set the fee amount in that market's currency instead.

This is a critical detail for international sellers. A fee is only collected at checkouts that use the same currency as the fee itself. Shopify's system does not automatically convert the fee amount to other currencies, so setting it correctly ensures it's applied as intended.

The cost of getting the currency wrong

Consider a US-based store selling to France. They need to collect a mandatory €2.00 recycling fee. If they mistakenly set the fee as 2.00 in their primary currency (USD), a French customer checking out in Euros would not see the fee at all, because the checkout currency (EUR) does not match the fee currency (USD).

This simple configuration mistake leads to a complete failure of compliance. The store would collect zero fees from its French customers, exposing itself to potential fines and legal issues in that market. It is essential to create a separate fee for each currency where a charge is required, even if the underlying rule is the same.

What should you plan before you ask for access?

Before requesting access, take the time to map out exactly what fees you need and why. Identify which products or collections require a fee, the precise amount, and the legal or operational reason for it. This clarity will make setup much faster if you are granted access.

Determine which specific markets each fee applies to. If you sell internationally, review the local regulations for your top markets to see if any mandatory fees, like e-waste or recycling charges, are required. Having this list ready will streamline the process.

Auditing your compliance requirements

A concrete first step is to create a compliance spreadsheet. List every country you ship to in the first column. In the next columns, research and list any product-specific fees required by law in that market, such as for electronics, batteries, or packaging. Note the exact fee amount and the legal statute that mandates it.

This audit provides the raw data needed for setup. For example, your research might show that under Germany's ElektroG, you owe a fee for electronics, and under France's AGEC law, you have obligations for packaging. Each of these may require a different fee rule and market setting within Shopify.

Finally, consider how these new fees might affect your customer experience. While they are mandatory, sudden new charges at checkout can be jarring. Plan to update your product pages, policy pages, or an FAQ to explain what the fee is for, ensuring customers understand the charge before they reach the final payment step.

Even with clear rules at checkout, customers may have questions or make mistakes after an order is placed. A customer might not have understood a fee and want to change their order after paying. Rather than creating a support ticket, tools like Tacey's order editing allow customers to add or remove items themselves on the order status page, with any price difference settled before shipment. You can explore how Tacey works on the Shopify App Store.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use additional fees for optional services like gift wrapping?

No, this feature is not designed for optional add-ons. The fees are mandatory and cannot be removed by the customer. For optional services, you should continue to use product variants or separate apps designed for product options.

Do these fees have inventory or get fulfilled?

No, a fee is a line item charge without any physical component. It has no inventory, is not part of the fulfillment process, and cannot be purchased on its own.

How are these fees different from the custom fees in Shopify POS?

These new checkout fees are applied automatically to online orders based on rules you set. The custom fees in Shopify POS are added manually by staff to a specific transaction at the point of sale.

Will these fees be taxed?

Whether a fee is taxable depends on your local tax regulations. You should consult a tax professional to understand your obligations. You can configure tax settings for your store within your Shopify admin, and Shopify Tax may apply fees for its calculation services depending on your sales volume.

What happens if a customer's cart contains products from multiple fee rules?

If a cart meets the criteria for multiple fee rules, all applicable fees will be added to the order at checkout. Each will appear as a separate line item.

Can I set a percentage-based fee?

No, the additional fees feature currently only supports fixed-amount charges. You cannot set a fee that is a percentage of the product or order price.

How do these fees interact with discounts?

Fees are applied to the order independently of any discounts. A discount on a product or an order will not reduce the amount of the mandatory fee. The fee is calculated and added as a separate line item after product and order discounts but before the final total is calculated.

What happens to the fee if an item is returned?

This depends on the regulation behind the fee. If the charge is for a service like disposal, it may not be refundable even if the product is returned. Your store policy should state this clearly. Deciding to refund the fee means your business absorbs that cost, as you likely still owe it to the regulatory body.

Furthermore, payment processors like Shopify Payments do not refund the original transaction fee when you process a return. You lose the processing cost on the whole transaction, including the mandatory fee. While small per order, this cost accumulates across all returns and directly eats into your net margin, a hidden cost of handling these regulated sales.