Country blocking - also known as geo-blocking - is one of the most commonly used security measures for Shopify stores. By restricting access from specific countries or regions, merchants can reduce fraud, comply with regulations, and focus their resources on markets where they actually operate.
But implementing country blocking effectively requires more than flipping a switch. Done poorly, you risk blocking legitimate customers, creating a false sense of security, or missing the nuances that make geo-blocking actually work. This guide covers everything you need to know about country blocking on Shopify in 2026.
Why Merchants Block Countries
There are several legitimate reasons to restrict access by geography. Understanding your specific motivation helps you choose the right approach.
Fraud Prevention
Certain countries are associated with higher rates of e-commerce fraud - including card testing, credential stuffing, and fake orders. Blocking regions where you receive a disproportionate amount of fraudulent activity can significantly reduce chargebacks and manual review time.
That said, fraud doesn’t come exclusively from a handful of countries. Sophisticated attackers use VPNs, proxies, and residential IP networks to appear as though they’re browsing from any location. Country blocking reduces the volume of low-effort fraud but shouldn’t be your only defense.
Sanctions and Legal Compliance
If you’re based in the United States, European Union, or other jurisdictions with trade sanctions, you may be legally required to block transactions from certain countries. Violating sanctions - even unintentionally - can result in severe penalties.
Common sanctioned regions include North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, and parts of the Crimea region. The specifics depend on your country of incorporation and the regulatory bodies that apply to your business. Always consult legal counsel for compliance questions.
Shipping and Fulfillment Restrictions
If you don’t ship to certain countries, there’s little reason to allow visitors from those regions to browse and attempt purchases. Blocking these countries reduces customer confusion, eliminates abandoned carts from people who can’t complete checkout, and prevents wasted customer service time.
Licensing and Distribution Agreements
Some products can only be sold in specific markets due to licensing, distribution, or regulatory constraints. Country blocking helps enforce these agreements at the storefront level.
Reducing Non-Converting Traffic
Traffic from countries where you have no market presence consumes server resources, skews analytics, and can inflate ad costs if you’re running retargeting campaigns. Blocking these regions keeps your data cleaner and your resources focused.
Which Countries Are Commonly Blocked (and Why)
While every store’s situation is different, some patterns are common across the Shopify ecosystem.
High-fraud-risk countries - Countries with historically high rates of card-not-present fraud often appear on block lists. However, be cautious about assumptions: fraud patterns shift over time, and blanket blocking can alienate legitimate customers in growing markets.
Sanctioned countries - As noted above, compliance with OFAC (US), EU sanctions, or equivalent regulations in your jurisdiction may require blocking.
Countries with no shipping coverage - If your logistics partners don’t deliver to certain regions, blocking those countries at the storefront level prevents orders you can’t fulfill.
Countries generating high bot traffic - If your analytics show a spike in non-human traffic from specific regions, temporary geo-blocking can reduce the load while you investigate.
The key is to base your block list on your own data - your fraud reports, traffic analytics, and order history - rather than generic lists.
How to Set Up Country Blocking on Shopify
Shopify doesn’t offer built-in country blocking at the storefront level. You can restrict which countries appear in your shipping settings and payment options, but this doesn’t prevent visitors from browsing your store.
For full geo-blocking, you need a third-party solution.
Option 1: Shopify Markets
Shopify Markets lets you define which countries and regions you sell to. You can remove markets to prevent checkout from unsupported regions. However, this only restricts the purchasing flow - visitors can still browse your site.
Option 2: Third-Party Security Apps
Apps like SecurEcommerce provide full country blocking at the storefront level. When a visitor from a blocked country loads your site, they’re shown a block page or redirected, preventing them from interacting with your store at all.
This approach gives you granular control:
- Block entire countries or specific regions
- Set custom block pages with messaging (e.g., “We don’t currently serve this region”)
- Combine country blocking with IP blocking and VPN detection for stronger coverage
- View analytics on blocked traffic to monitor patterns
Option 3: CDN-Level Blocking
If you’re using a CDN like Cloudflare in front of your Shopify store, you can configure geo-blocking at the network level. This blocks requests before they reach Shopify, reducing server load. However, this approach requires more technical setup and may not integrate as smoothly with your Shopify admin.
Partial vs. Full Blocking
Not every situation calls for a complete block. Consider the difference between partial and full blocking.
Full blocking prevents all access from a country. Visitors see a block page or are redirected. Use this for sanctioned countries, regions with no business purpose, or sources of persistent attacks.
Partial blocking allows visitors to browse but restricts specific actions like checkout, account creation, or form submission. This approach works well when you want to maintain visibility in a market but prevent fraud at key interaction points.
For example, you might allow visitors from a high-risk country to view products but require additional verification at checkout, or block account creation while allowing guest browsing.
Impact on Legitimate Customers
Every country block carries the risk of catching legitimate customers in the net. Here’s how to minimize that impact:
- Use clear messaging on your block page. Explain why access is restricted and provide a way to contact you if someone believes they’ve been blocked in error.
- Offer alternative contact methods like email, so legitimate customers can still reach your support team.
- Review your block list regularly. Markets change, and a country that was a fraud source six months ago might now be a growing customer base.
- Combine with VPN detection rather than relying solely on IP geolocation. A customer traveling abroad shouldn’t lose access to your store permanently.
Using VPN Detection Alongside Country Blocking
Country blocking based on IP geolocation has a well-known limitation: anyone using a VPN can appear to be in a different country. This means a blocked user can bypass your geo-restrictions by connecting to a VPN server in an allowed region.
To address this, pair country blocking with VPN and proxy detection. This combination allows you to:
- Detect when a visitor is using a VPN or proxy, regardless of their apparent location
- Flag VPN users for additional scrutiny at checkout without necessarily blocking them
- Identify data center IPs (commonly used by bots and automated tools) and treat them differently from residential traffic
SecurEcommerce includes both country blocking and VPN detection as part of its security suite, allowing you to create layered rules that account for location masking.
Monitoring and Adjusting Your Block Rules
Country blocking isn’t a “set and forget” strategy. Regular review ensures your rules stay effective and don’t create unnecessary friction.
What to monitor:
- Blocked traffic volume - A sudden spike may indicate a targeted attack; a steady decline might mean your block is no longer necessary
- Fraud reports by country - Update your block list based on current fraud patterns, not historical assumptions
- Customer complaints - If legitimate customers report being blocked, investigate and adjust
- VPN bypass rates - If you’re seeing fraud from a blocked country coming through VPNs, tighten your VPN detection rules
- Conversion impact - Check whether blocking a country has noticeably affected your sales or traffic quality
Review your geo-blocking rules at least quarterly, and after any significant change to your market strategy.
Conclusion
Country blocking is a practical, effective tool for reducing fraud, meeting compliance requirements, and focusing your store on the markets that matter. But it works best when implemented thoughtfully - based on your own data, combined with VPN detection, and reviewed regularly.
The goal isn’t to wall off your store from the world. It’s to make informed decisions about which traffic to allow, which to challenge, and which to block - giving your legitimate customers a smooth experience while keeping bad actors out.