Multiple languages

Selling in multiple languages can increase sales by reaching customers all over the world. You can add multiple languages in your Shopify admin and use a translation app to translate your store content.

Once you set up multiple languages, customers can choose their preferred language with Spark's language selector. Spark also includes pre-packaged theme translations for 11 languages.

If you have multiple languages enabled, some sections and features require extra steps to enter translated words into the theme editor, including product variant swatches and variant chips.

Add multiple languages to your store

Before adding new languages, make sure your store meets the requirements for selling in multiple languages ↗.

STEPS

In your Shopify Admin:

  1. Go to Settings and click Languages.

  2. Click Add Language. Select a language from the menu, then click Next.

  3. Select an existing market ↗ to add your language to, then click Done.

    See Shopify's guide to managing markets ↗ to add and configure the countries and regions you sell to.

  4. Under Unpublished languages, click Edit to add your translations before publishing them.

Add translation app to translate store content

Translation apps let you add and edit all store content, such as custom content added to your products, pages, and sections.

Spark is compatible with Shopify's free Translate & Adapt app. The app fully integrates with and can be accessed through the theme editor.

Note | Other third-party translation apps are available on Shopify's app store. Our theme support does not cover app integration. We recommend duplicating your theme before adding any apps and testing them thoroughly before purchasing. Please contact app developers for assistance.

Install and use Translate & Adapt

Download the Translate & Adapt app and follow the steps provided in the app and Shopify's app manual ↗.

All translations are organized by category, such as Products, Pages, and Blog posts. You can also edit translations included in all theme assets and theme sections.

When finished your translations, remember to go to Settings > Languages to publish your languages.

Tags on Shopify (such as product tags, article tags, and blog tags) cannot be translated.

Install Geolocation app

You may also want to download a geolocation app to prompt customers to shop in their preferred language based on their location.

All updated Fluorescent themes are compatible with Shopify’s free Geolocation app. Download the Geolocation app and follow the steps provided in the app and Shopify's app manual ↗.

Theme translations

Spark includes 11 pre-packaged theme translations: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese (BR), Portuguese (PT), Russian, Swedish, Chinese (Simplified).

Theme translations are for text elements included in and controlled by the theme. All other content needs to be manually entered or auto-translated with a translation app.

In the Translate & Adapt app, you can add and edit translations for Theme assets and Theme sections.

Enable language selector

Customer's can select their preferred language by using Spark's language selector.

The language selector is enabled by default for the Header and Footer sections. The selector will appear when languages are added and published.

To disable the language selector, click on the Header or Footer sections in the theme editor. Click to uncheck Enable language selector.

Fixing translations errors

In some theme strings, code with curly brackets ({{ code }}) are included to dynamically show the correct content on your site.

If you're using an app that auto-translates your store content, errors can occur when code is translated. For example, the code {{count}} shows the number of search results. If "count" is translated to another language, the code will not work.

In Translate & Adapt, open theme assets and use the search bar to find strings with a curly bracket {. Re-add the code in the 'English' column to the translated language column.

Related links

Edit default theme content Unique content for markets

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