magento - Allow Countries - What does this mean?

Question

ok... so I feel really stupid asking this question.. but just wondering about the Allow Countries drop down in the admin panel..

What exactly does this mean?

Does it mean that only certain countries are allowed to purchase from your site? if it does mean that how does it determine where you are shopping from? is it done using a IP Geo locator or is it determined when the user inputs their address on the checkout page?

or does it mean that only customers from certain countries have access to the site?

Regards, Fiona

Answer 1

I believe it's a list of countries you are willing to ship to. Here's a reference that says this. The available list seems to be limited by locale, so no geolocating involved. No idea why this is done though.

Answer 2

ok.. thanks for that!

Regards, Fiona