> ## 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, Shopify > Orders by Country for Shopify 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 distribution grouped by the customer's default-address country. Tells you where your buyers physically live, which informs ad targeting, shipping zones, language / currency strategy, and tax registrations. | | | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **What it counts** | `GROUP BY customer.defaultAddress.country` over orders in the period. Each order contributes one to its country bucket. | | **API endpoint** | `Admin GraphQL. Order.customer.defaultAddress.country` (ISO 3166 alpha-2 country code, surfaced as country name). | | **Default-address vs shipping-address** | The card uses *default address* on the customer record, NOT *shipping address* on the order. A UK customer who has a US billing default and ships an order to a friend in the US shows as US here. For most stores this distinction is irrelevant; for cross-border gift-heavy categories (florists, gift hampers) it matters. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | Not applicable (count distribution). | | **Shipping** | Not applicable directly; but countries with high orders are usually where you should add shipping options or local fulfilment. | | **Discounts** | Not applicable. | | **Refunds** | Refunded orders still count in their original country. | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | Included; cancelled orders contribute to country distribution if a customer was attached. | | **Currency** | Not applicable to the count; presentment currency typically aligns with country (UK orders in GBP, US in USD) but can mismatch (a UK customer paying in USD). | | **Channels / sources** | Online + POS-with-account + B2B. POS-guest orders (no customer record, no country) excluded. | | **Missing country** | Customers without `defaultAddress.country` (some POS-account customers, some B2B contacts) bucket to "Unknown" or are excluded depending on configuration. | | **Time window** | `30D` (single window) | | **Alert trigger** | None on this card. | | **Roles** | owner, marketing | ## Calculation ``` GROUP BY customer.defaultAddress.country.keyword WHERE date BETWEEN [period_start, period_end] ``` ## Worked example A UK DTC apparel brand on Shopify. Period: 12 Apr 26 to 11 May 26. The store ships to UK + EU + US. | Country | Order count | Share | Avg order value | Note | | -------------------- | ----------- | -------- | --------------- | ------------------------------- | | United Kingdom | 1,420 | 71.8% | £62 | Home market, strongest | | Ireland | 142 | 7.2% | £58 | Strong, easy fulfilment from UK | | United States | 218 | 11.0% | £78 | Higher AOV, slower fulfilment | | Germany | 78 | 3.9% | £67 | EU's largest spend | | France | 54 | 2.7% | £64 | | | Netherlands | 32 | 1.6% | £61 | | | Australia | 18 | 0.9% | £92 | High AOV, low volume | | Other (12 countries) | 16 | 0.8% | £55 | Tail | | **Total** | **1,978** | **100%** | **£64** | | Five things to notice: 1. **The UK still dominates at 72%, but the international share is meaningful.** A 28% international share means 28% of the customer-service load, returns logistics, and fraud scrutiny is non-domestic. If your support and ops are UK-only, a 28% non-UK share is enough to require dedicated processes (e.g. EU returns address, English-fluent customer service for European time zones). 2. **Ireland punches above weight.** 7.2% of orders for a country smaller than London is striking. UK brands often see this; cross-platform fulfilment is straightforward, no language barrier, post-Brexit shoppers prefer UK brands they trust over US ones with longer ship times. Ireland is usually a great test market for EU expansion. 3. **US AOV is 26% above UK AOV.** Cross-border shopping carries a "go big or it's not worth it" psychology; US customers tend to bundle to make shipping economical. AOV asymmetry should be reflected in ad creatives: US ads can lean into bundles and free-shipping thresholds; UK ads can sell single items. 4. **Tax-registration thresholds matter.** EU country thresholds for VAT registration vary, but the Vortex IQ rule of thumb is: any country contributing >5% of orders is worth a VAT-registration review. Germany at 3.9% is on the edge; if it crosses 5% sustained, plan for German VAT registration to enable smoother in-country fulfilment. 5. **Australia at 18 orders, £1,656 revenue.** Worth noting but not worth dedicated investment yet. Plan a re-evaluation at 50+ orders / month; below that, the operational complexity of true international expansion (3PL setup, returns, AU-compliant tax invoices) doesn't pay back. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together Country distribution informs strategy decisions. Pair with these: | Card | Why pair it with Customer Countries | What the combination tells you | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [AOV by Country](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/aov-by-country) | Drill: AOV per country. | Country share + AOV per country = revenue contribution per country. | | [Top Cities](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/top-cities-by-orders) | Sub-country granularity. | Within a top country, which cities concentrate? Useful for retail expansion. | | [Customer Count](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unique-customers) | The denominator from a different angle. | Customer-country mix = the underlying buyer base; this card shows current-period orders. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | Top-line dollar context. | Country share × revenue = revenue per country, the spreadsheet view marketers actually want. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/refund-rate) | Refund rates vary by country. | Some markets (Germany, France) have legally-mandated 14-day return rights; refund rates run higher there. | | [`google_ads.google_geo_performance`](/nerve-centre/google_ads/google_geo_performance) | Ad spend by country counterpart. | The Google Ads spend-by-country should track this card; mismatches reveal targeting waste. | | [`google_analytics.ga_users_by_country`](/nerve-centre/google_analytics/ga_users_by_country) | Top-of-funnel view of geo. | Traffic-by-country vs orders-by-country = country-level conversion rate. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Shopify Admin:** [Analytics → Reports → "Sales by location"](https://admin.shopify.com/reports/sales_by_location) → set the same date range. Shopify's report uses the *shipping address* country by default, not customer default-address. The two differ for gift orders; otherwise they should match. Other Shopify Admin views that *look* similar but are not the same: * **Reports → Customers by location**: groups by country similarly. Aligns more closely with this card. * **Markets settings**: shows where you've enabled selling, not where customers are. A configured market without orders shows here as zero on the card. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Shopify Admin:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | --------------------------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Default-address vs shipping-address** | Either | Shopify's *Sales by location* uses shipping country; this card uses customer's default-address country. Gift-shopping volume amplifies the gap. | | **Country code normalisation** | Either | Some legacy orders have free-text country values ("UK", "England", "Britain"); the card normalises to ISO codes where possible, may bucket some orders to "Unknown". | | **POS guest orders** | Both exclude | Both Shopify reports and this card exclude POS-guest orders (no customer record, no country). | | **Markets multi-region** | Same data | A Shopify Markets configuration does not change this card; orders are bucketed by customer country regardless of which market they bought from. | | **Sync lag** | Ours lower for "today" | 5 to 15 minute index lag. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`google_analytics.ga_users_by_country`](/nerve-centre/google_analytics/ga_users_by_country) | GA4 traffic by country, much larger than orders | Country-level conversion rate = orders ÷ users. Divergence in mix indicates targeting waste. | | [`google_ads.google_geo_performance`](/nerve-centre/google_ads/google_geo_performance) | Ad spend by country | Spend share should track order share; spend-heavy underperforming countries are pause candidates. | | [`facebook.fb_geo_performance`](/nerve-centre/facebook/fb_geo_performance) | Meta Ads spend by country | Same reasoning as Google Ads. | ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) The same definition lives on other commerce platforms. Cross-platform navigation only. * [`bigcommerce.customer_countries`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/orders-by-country) * [`adobe_commerce.customer_countries`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/orders-by-country)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why does the card show "Unknown" as a country?** Some customers have no `defaultAddress.country` set: B2B contacts created from manual entry, customers who registered via social login without a shipping address. Most stores see \<2% Unknown. >5% suggests a checkout-flow issue (a step is skipping address capture). **Why does Shopify's report show different country shares?** Shopify Admin's *Sales by location* uses shipping address; this card uses customer's default address. The two differ for gift orders or businesses where the buyer's address differs from the delivery address. For most pure-DTC stores the difference is \<3%. **My biggest country isn't the one I expected, why?** Two common causes: 1. **Cross-border SEO win.** A blog post or product page ranks well in another country's search results, driving unintended international orders. Pleasant surprise; consider expanding the locale. 2. **Misattribution at signup.** Customer accounts may have been created with default countries from imports or migrations. Spot-check by clicking through a sample of customers and confirming. **Multi-currency, does the order in card match the country?** Mostly yes (UK orders pay in GBP, US in USD), but Shopify allows customers to switch presentment currency at checkout. A UK customer can pay in EUR if they wish. The country bucket is determined by customer address, not currency, so a UK-EUR order shows in the UK bucket here. **Multi-store, do I see all countries across stores?** No, each store is a separate integration. A UK store and a US store running on the same Plus organization have independent country distributions. Combine manually for the rollup. **Shopify Plus vs basic, any difference?** No definitional difference. Plus stores using Markets often have richer country mix because they enable more shipping zones and currencies; basic stores tend to skew home-country-heavy. **Refresh cadence?** Webhooks fire within seconds; index lag 5 to 15 minutes. The 30-day window updates each ingest cycle. **B2B vs DTC?** B2B companies often have multiple buyer locations across countries. The card uses the customer record's default-address country; if a buyer in the US places an order on behalf of a UK company, the country shown depends on how the contact was set up. Audit B2B contact records if cross-country B2B is significant. **The card moved, what should I do?** 1. Identify whether a single new country emerged (often advertising-driven) or an existing country changed share. 2. If a new country has appeared (>5% of orders for the first time), check ad targeting; you may have unintentionally enabled it. 3. If a long-standing country dropped sharply, check whether shipping zones or currency settings changed; a Markets reconfiguration can suppress orders without other warning signs. 4. Use the country list to drive concrete next actions: VAT thresholds, language localisation, ad-targeting refinement, fulfilment partnerships. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Orders by Country* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Shopify 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.