> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Orders by Country, BigCommerce > Orders by Country for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Order count split by customer's billing-country code (or shipping-country, configurable). The international-expansion view, where in the world your customers are coming from, where you have ad-targeting opportunity, and where shipping logistics need investment. | | | | ------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(orders) GROUP BY billing_address.country` over 30 days. Each order attributed to the country code on the billing address by default; toggle to shipping country. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | n/a (count metric). | | **Shipping** | n/a (the country is geographic, not shipping-cost). | | **Discounts** | n/a. | | **Refunds** | Refunded orders included (the country is still geographic fact). | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | Cancelled orders excluded by default. | | **Currency** | n/a (this is country, not currency; though strongly correlated). | | **Channels / sources** | All channels contribute. Marketplace orders provide country via the marketplace's billing-address pass-through; some marketplaces strip the address and only provide a region (Amazon US sees "United States" without zip / state precision via Channel Manager in some configurations). | | **Billing vs shipping** | Default is billing country. Toggle to shipping for the "where are goods physically going" view; useful for logistics decisions. The two diverge for gift orders (billing US, shipping UK), expat orders (billing home, shipping current location), and corporate orders (billing HQ, shipping branches). | | **Country-code normalisation** | We normalise to ISO-3166 alpha-2 codes (US, GB, DE, FR, etc.). BC stores country codes consistently; minor variations (e.g. "GB" vs "UK") are normalised. | | **B2B Edition note** | B2B accounts often have one HQ billing country with shipping spread across branches in many countries. The split between billing and shipping country views can be very different for B2B-heavy stores; review both. | | **Time window** | `30D` (rolling 30 days, vs prior 30 day comparison) | | **Alert trigger** | None on this card directly. | | **Roles** | owner, marketing | ## Calculation ``` GROUP BY billingAddress.country.keyword WHERE date BETWEEN [period_start, period_end] ``` ## Worked example A UK-based homewares brand on BigCommerce Pro selling internationally, 30-day window 14 Apr 26 to 14 May 26. | Country | Code | Orders | Share | AOV | Total revenue | Verdict | | -------------------- | ----- | --------- | -------- | --------- | ------------- | ------------------------ | | United Kingdom | GB | 4,820 | 64% | £88 | £424,160 | Home market, dominant | | United States | US | 1,180 | 15.7% | \$112 | \$132,160 | **Strong export market** | | Germany | DE | 480 | 6.4% | €92 | €44,160 | Solid EU presence | | France | FR | 280 | 3.7% | €88 | €24,640 | Growing EU | | Ireland | IE | 220 | 2.9% | €82 | €18,040 | Cross-border IE | | Netherlands | NL | 180 | 2.4% | €94 | €16,920 | Steady | | Spain | ES | 140 | 1.9% | €86 | €12,040 | Modest | | Australia | AU | 120 | 1.6% | \$138 AUD | \$16,560 AUD | Long-distance | | Canada | CA | 80 | 1.1% | \$108 CAD | \$8,640 CAD | Long-distance | | Other (10 countries) | mixed | 90 | 1.2% | mixed | small | Tail | | **Total** | | **7,590** | **100%** | (mixed) | (mixed) | | What's interesting: 1. **64% UK / 36% international is healthy global mix.** Pure-domestic UK stores would be 95%+ GB; this merchant has clearly invested in international expansion. The next 5 markets (US, DE, FR, IE, NL) account for 31% of orders combined. 2. \*\*US at 15.7% with $112 AOV is the standout export.** Higher AOV than UK ($112 vs £88 \~ \$108) suggests US customers are buying higher-tier items. Investigate which SKUs drive US orders, are they specific premium items? Does Amazon US cannibalise the direct US channel (cross-reference [BC Revenue by Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-by-channel))? 3. **EU markets (DE + FR + IE + NL + ES) = 17% combined.** Post-Brexit shipping complexity has hurt many UK→EU exporters; if these markets are growing, your EU logistics setup is working. If declining, customs / VAT / shipping-cost friction is killing demand. 4. \*\*Australia at 120 orders / $138 AUD AOV** is meaningful for a UK shipper despite the distance. Long-distance markets pay higher shipping costs; the high AOV ($138 vs \$108 for closer markets) reflects either premium-product mix or shipping-included pricing. 5. **The 10-country tail at 90 orders combined** rarely justifies dedicated investment. Maintain access (don't block these countries) but don't allocate marketing spend until any single tail country crosses 1% of orders. Action priority order: 1. **Double down on US** allocate ad spend, consider US-warehouse fulfilment to reduce shipping time / cost. 2. **EU customs / VAT review** ensure your post-Brexit IOSS / OSS registrations are current; broken registration = customs holds = customer experience disaster. 3. **Australia logistics review** is the high AUD AOV genuine premium demand or shipping-cost-baked-in? Worth optimising. 4. **Tail-country audit quarterly** any tail country crossing 1% of orders deserves localised pricing / shipping consideration. 5. **Cross-reference with [BC Revenue by Currency](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-by-currency)** country and currency are correlated but not identical; both views together inform expansion strategy. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Customer Countries | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- | | [BC AOV by Country](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/aov-by-country) | Per-country AOV; the dollar lens of this card. | | [BC Revenue by Currency](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-by-currency) | Currency split; correlates with country but not identical. | | [Top Cities](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-cities-by-orders) | Within-country city-level view; useful for top markets. | | [BC Orders by State](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/orders-by-state-region) | US-state-level granularity (or equivalent in other countries). | | [BC Channel Currency Mix](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/currency-mix-by-channel) | Channel × currency cross-tab. | | [Customer Count](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/unique-customers) | Total customer base; this card is country-split. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) | Total revenue context. | | [`google_analytics.ga_revenue_by_country`](/nerve-centre/google_analytics/ga_revenue_by_country) | GA4 country attribution; should track within ±10%. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce Control Panel:** [Analytics → Customer Reports](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/analytics) on Plus / Pro / Enterprise plans includes a per-country breakdown. [Orders → All orders](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/orders) can be filtered by billing country for spot checks. [Customers → View](https://login.bigcommerce.com/deep-links/manage/customers) shows registered customer countries (different from order country, since registered customers may not have ordered in this period). **Why our number may legitimately differ from BC:** | Reason | Direction | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | **Billing vs shipping**. We default to billing; BC may default to shipping in some reports. | Different totals on gift / corporate orders | | **Cancelled orders**. We exclude; BC may include. | BC HIGHER counts | | **Time-zone**. UTC default vs BC store time. | Boundary differences | | **Channel coverage**. We include all channels; BC reports may default to web. | Different totals | | **Marketplace orders**. Some marketplaces strip address granularity; we attribute to country at the resolution available. | Possible attribution differences | | **Country-code normalisation**. We use ISO-3166 alpha-2; BC stores may have legacy codes. | Cosmetic differences only | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when GA4 connected):** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`google_analytics.ga_revenue_by_country`](/nerve-centre/google_analytics/ga_revenue_by_country) | GA4's country attribution should match within ±10%. | GA4 misses 10-25% to ad blockers; uses IP geolocation rather than billing address (different mechanism). | | [`google_ads.ga_geo_targeting_performance`](/nerve-centre/google_ads/ga_geo_targeting_performance) | Ad-spend by country should align with order-share by country if targeting is right. | Targeting is leading; orders are trailing. | **The country-split view is BC-aligned with Shopify and Adobe Commerce; semantics equivalent.** ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.customer_countries`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/orders-by-country) (planned) * [`adobe_commerce.customer_countries`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/orders-by-country) (planned)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is my home country share so high (95%)?** Pure-domestic store. Either you've never tried international expansion, or your storefront is configured to discourage international (no international shipping, no localised pricing). Whether 95% is a problem depends on your strategy; many UK or US merchants are perfectly happy domestic-only. International expansion adds complexity (VAT registration, customs, currency, shipping, customer support); only pursue if the market opportunity justifies. **Should I use billing country or shipping country?** Depends on the question. **Billing for customer-mix understanding** (where the buyer lives), **shipping for logistics planning** (where goods physically go). Most strategic decisions use billing; logistics decisions use shipping. **A country I don't ship to is showing orders, how?** Likely a customer used a forwarding service (Shipito, MyUS) where billing country is theirs but shipping is to a US/UK forwarder address. Common for hard-to-export markets. Check shipping country for the actual destination. **My EU markets dropped sharply post-Brexit, expected?** Yes for UK→EU exporters. Brexit added customs paperwork, VAT complexity, shipping cost, and customer-side import duties. Many UK→EU sellers saw 30-50% volume drops. Recovery requires investment in IOSS/OSS registration, Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) shipping, and clear messaging about all-in pricing on storefront. **Can I exclude marketplace orders from country analysis?** Yes via channel filter. Marketplace orders may distort country views (Amazon US locks all orders to US billing regardless of true buyer location). Filter to web channel for accurate buyer-country mix. **Why is the country granularity so different per channel?** Some marketplaces (Amazon) strip detailed address info, others (eBay) provide full data. Channel Manager normalises what it can; the per-country resolution depends on what the marketplace shares. Web orders always have full address detail. **Should I run separate ad campaigns per top country?** Yes for top 3-5 countries. Per-country ad campaigns get country-specific creative, language, currency, shipping promises. Generic global campaigns underperform vs localised ones, often by 30-50%. Below top-5, the operational overhead of per-country campaigns rarely pays off. **My customer countries map differs from my session countries (GA4), why?** GA4 uses IP geolocation; this card uses billing address. They diverge for: (1) VPN users; (2) customers traveling (US customer ordering from Tokyo); (3) shared addresses (corporate billing). The two views answer different questions; both are valid. **Multi-currency, do I see countries in their native currency?** The card shows order count by country regardless of currency; the AOV column shows order-currency native amount. For full currency granularity, cross-reference [BC Revenue by Currency](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-by-currency). **A new country appearing this period, real or noise?** Single orders in new countries are usually expat / forwarding-service / corporate one-offs. Wait for 5+ orders before considering it a real market. Don't rush to localise for a single-order country. **Should I block countries I don't want to ship to?** Configure shipping zones to exclude problematic countries. Don't rely on customer self-selection; customers will order to a forwarding service if you allow it. Explicit zone exclusion at checkout prevents the order from being placed. **Why is "Other" appearing as a country?** Two causes: (1) malformed billing addresses without a clear country code; (2) marketplace orders with stripped country info. The "Other" bucket should be \<1% of orders; if higher, audit address-data quality. **My B2B store has corporate HQs in one country shipping to branches globally, how do I see this?** Switch to shipping country view. Billing country shows where the corporate HQ is (concentrated in one country); shipping country shows the global reach. The two views combined inform B2B account-management strategy: HQ relationship in one country, branch fulfilment in many. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Orders by Country* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.