Key takeaways
- Shopify’s built-in language editor (Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit languages) controls theme system text like buttons, labels, and notifications.
- For a fully multi-language store, use Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app - it’s free and covers product content, pages, and metafields.
- Each locale has its own content that you translate separately - products, pages, and collections each need manual translation per language.
- Shopify Markets handles URL routing and currency for multi-language stores.
Translating a Shopify store involves two distinct layers: system text (buttons, labels, error messages) and content (product descriptions, page text, blog posts). The tools for each are different.
Why you can trust us
Jacques has 15+ years of Shopify development experience. We built Fudge — an AI storefront editor used by hundreds of Shopify stores, with a 5.0 rating on the Shopify App Store.
How to manually translate theme text in Shopify
This method covers system-level text - “Add to cart”, “Sold out”, “View details”, navigation labels, and other interface strings controlled by your theme’s language files.
Step 1. Go to Online Store → Themes.
Step 2. Click Actions (the button next to your active theme) → Edit languages.
Step 3. You’ll see a full list of translatable strings grouped by section: General, Products, Cart, Checkout, and others.
Step 4. Use the search bar at the top to find specific phrases. Search for the English text you want to translate.
Step 5. Click the field next to the string and enter your translation.
Step 6. Save.
The change applies immediately to your storefront.
How to manually translate Shopify?
The language editor (above) covers theme strings. But manually translating the full store - every product, page, and blog post - is done via the Translate & Adapt app.
Install Translate & Adapt from the Shopify App Store (it’s free and built by Shopify).
Once installed, it gives you a side-by-side editor where you translate:
- Product titles, descriptions, and variant names
- Page titles and content
- Collection titles and descriptions
- Navigation menu labels
- Blog post content
- Metafield values
You work in the app rather than the main Shopify admin. Each language is a separate locale, and content for each locale is stored and served independently.
How to add a language to Shopify
Step 1. Go to Shopify Admin → Settings → Languages.
Step 2. Click Add language.
Step 3. Select the language from the list.
Step 4. Save.
Adding the language creates the locale but doesn’t translate anything automatically. You still need to translate content manually or use a translation app that supports machine translation.
Publishing the language: After adding, go back to Settings → Languages → click Publish next to the language. This makes it available to visitors. Shopify uses the browser’s language preference or a language selector widget to direct visitors to the right locale.
How do I translate an entire text?
For large volumes of text, manual translation is slow. Translate & Adapt supports auto-translation powered by DeepL and Microsoft Translator. In the app:
Step 1. Select the language you’re translating into.
Step 2. Click Auto-translate or the translate button next to a content block.
Step 3. Review the output - auto-translation is a starting point, not a finished product. Edit anything that sounds unnatural or incorrect for your brand voice.
Auto-translation works well for product descriptions and general page text. For marketing copy, landing pages, and branded messaging, manual editing after auto-translation is strongly recommended.
What does Shopify’s language editor cover?
The Edit languages editor (under Online Store → Themes → Actions) covers:
- Theme interface strings: buttons, labels, form placeholders
- Checkout strings: if you have a non-custom checkout (Shopify-hosted checkout has its own translation layer)
- Email notification text: some notification templates reference theme translations
It does not cover product content, page content, or blog posts. Those are content - translated via Translate & Adapt or a third-party translation app.
Shopify Markets and multi-language stores
Shopify Markets handles the routing and localisation infrastructure for multi-language and multi-currency stores.
When you publish a language, Shopify Markets creates locale-specific URLs:
- Default:
yourstore.com/ - French:
yourstore.com/fr/ - German:
yourstore.com/de/
Go to Shopify Admin → Settings → Markets to configure which countries see which languages, currencies, and domains. This is separate from translation - Markets controls where languages are shown, while Translate & Adapt controls what is shown.
Third-party translation apps
Beyond Translate & Adapt, several apps offer more advanced translation workflows:
Weglot - handles translation at the CDN level. Fast to set up, no content duplication in Shopify. Subscription-based.
Langify - integrates deeply with Shopify’s content model. Good for complex product catalogues.
Bablic - visual translation editor that lets you click elements on your live site to translate them.
For most merchants with a simple catalogue, Translate & Adapt is sufficient and has no ongoing cost.
Translating theme sections built with Fudge
If you’ve added custom sections to your theme using Fudge - landing pages, product features, promotional banners - those sections can be made translatable by adding them to your theme’s locale files.
Describe what you need to Fudge:
“Make the hero section on the summer campaign page translatable, with fields for the headline, subheading, and button text in each language.”
Fudge updates the section schema and locale files to support translation through the standard Shopify language editor.
