Markets

Markets

Markets group how your storefront is exposed for a region or segment: name, currency, visual flag, and the domains (URLs) that visitors use—each mapped to a language you maintain under Translations. Open Markets from the project sidebar (under project settings).

Overview

The markets page lists every market in a card-style layout. Each row shows the market name, slug, domains (host and optional path) with language hints, and currency. A market that is not yet launched carries a Draft badge, and the project's default market carries a Default market badge. From here you can open Settings for a market or delete it after confirmation.

If you have no markets yet, an empty state explains how to get started and offers Create market.

Default market

Above the list, Default market picks which market the storefront treats as primary. It decides:

• the x-default hreflang, which tells search engines where to send visitors whose language you don't publish;
• the primary URL of every page, the one that isn't an alias;
• what visitors get when they reach a hostname you haven't assigned to any market;
• which market Studio opens on.

Only active markets can be chosen. Leaving it unset falls back to whichever active market happens to sort first, and the page names that market so you can see what you're getting. Set it explicitly on any project with more than one market. Otherwise x-default can end up pointing at a market that isn't your main one.

Market status

Every market is either Active or Draft, set under General settings.

Draft means configured but not launched. The market's own domain still works, so you can open it and check the market before go-live, but:

• nothing on the storefront links to it: it stays out of market switchers, hreflang alternates, and x-default;
• its pages are served with noindex, nofollow, so search engines don't index them.

New markets are created as Draft. Set a market to Active once its domains and languages are right and you want visitors on it.

The current default market cannot be set to Draft. Assign another default market first.

Creating a market

Create market opens a dialog where you set up the basics before saving:

• General settings
  • Name — required; used as the display name and drives the market’s slug when created.
  • Currency — choose from a searchable list (name and code).
  • Status: either Active or Draft; new markets default to Draft (see Market status).
  • Market image / icon — optional flag or region picker (including a “global” style option) so the market is easy to recognize in lists and in Studio.
• Domains
  • One or more domain rows: enter the hostname (the field is prefixed with www. as a visual hint; you can still enter values like shop.example.com or paths such as shop.example.com/de).
  • For each row, pick the language that should be served on that domain (only languages you already added under Translations appear here).
  • Add another domain with Add domain when one market serves multiple hosts or paths.

Save creates the market and returns you to the list.

Editing a market

Open a market via its name, flag, or Settings. The detail view shows:

• A back link to the markets list.
• The market title and delete market (with confirmation—same as deleting from the list).
• General settings card: same fields as creation (name, currency, status, flag).
• Domains card — edit hosts, paths, and assigned languages; add or remove rows (you cannot remove the last row).
  • For existing domains, you can mark one as default from the row menu so Cockpit knows which domain is primary when that matters for routing or previews.
• Save / Cancel at the bottom.

If you rename the market, the slug may update; when it does, Cockpit can redirect you to the URL that matches the new slug.

Hints on the page

The market editor may remind you to add missing languages in Translations so every domain can be assigned a language. A documentation link in the footer points to further reading outside the Cockpit.

How this connects to Studio

Studio uses your markets and their languages for the market/language switcher in the top bar, and opens on the default market. Draft markets stay listed and editable there, since you configure a market before launching it, and are marked Draft. Getting markets and domains right ensures editors preview the storefront in the correct locale and URL context.