Today, Shopify has sunset the free Geolocation app. The app detected visitors' locations based on GeoIP and recommended the relevant market on the store. The app was automatically added to any new Shopify stores until September 2024.
The positive thing is that the annoying pop-up "Your location is set to" will finally disappear from most of the Shopify stores. I personally hated it, especially as a real customer. The typical UX on the Shopify store was:
- Cookie consent banner
- Location pop-up
- Welcome pop-up
All these on top of each other within a couple of seconds (typically).
Why was the Geolocation app terminated
On March 24, 2025, the app was uninstalled from all Shopify stores, and the App Store listing is now displaying the following message: "This app is not currently available on the Shopify App Store. If you have support questions, contact Shopify directly."
The reason Shopify is shutting down the app is that it has become quite outdated. In the meantime, Shopify has built many of its functionalities directly into the platform. Specifically, there are these two:
- Country/region redirection – It automatically detects the visitor's location based on his GeoIP and redirects to the relevant storefront.
- Language redirection – It automatically detects the visitor's browser language and redirects to the relevant storefront. For example, if the visitor is located in Canada and has French as a browser language, the relevant locale will be fr-ca (if it exists).
What to use instead
Many merchants are now asking, "What app should I use instead?" Well, my recommendation is simple: don't use any app, just use Shopify's native settings.
- Go to your store → Settings → Markets → Preferences
- In the Automatic redirection section, enable "Country/region redirection" and/or "Language redirection."
Test the behavior of each option and whether it works well for your store.
Redirect automatically or not
I also believe the visitor behavior has changed quite a bit, and customers understand the store is selling in multiple locations/currencies, and they can update the region manually. Typically in the header or footer of the store.
Large part of the experience and region selection is also controlled in the marketing via ad URLs.
Therefore, I think it's totally OK not to use any automatic redirects, and let users control their experience.
