Managing languages
You can manage multiple languages in your store in the Languages section of your Shopify admin, and manage languages for each of your markets in the Markets section of your Shopify admin.
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Considerations for managing languages
Review the following considerations for managing languages and translations for your online store and markets:
- Make sure your store meets the requirements for selling in multiple languages.
- Adding a language only adds translations in supported languages to supported themes and checkouts. If you want to add translations to other store content, then you need to import translations or use an app.
- You must provide the translations when adding languages to your store. Before you add a new language, ensure that you have your translations ready, or that you have a translation app installed and have assigned the language to a market. You can use the Translate & Adapt app to import your translated content into Shopify. You can also visit the Shopify App Store to find a translation app for your store.
- If you publish a language to your store without adding translations, then you receive a message prompting you to add translations. Languages that are published without adding additional translations only display the provided translations for the theme and checkout.
- You need to have international domains set up to manage languages for specific markets. If you don't have international domains set up, then your language settings are the same for all of your active markets.
Add a language to your online store
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages.
Click Add Language.
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In the Add language dialog, select a language from the drop-down menu, and then do either of the following:
- If you don't have international domains set up, or if you have only one market, then click Add.
- If you have more than one market and have international domains set up, then select the active markets that you want to add your language to:
- Click Next.
- Toggle any markets that you want to add the language to.
- Click Done.
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Do either of the following to add translations:
- Use the Translate & Adapt app to import your translated content into Shopify.
- Visit the Shopify App Store and install a translation app to your store. Follow the steps in the app to translate your online store's content and publish new languages.
Publish a language to your online store
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages.
In Unpublished languages, click Publish next to the language that you want to make available to customers in your store.
Click Save.
Manage languages for markets
You can add languages, manage languages, and change the default language for each market in the Markets section of your Shopify admin.
Before you can manage languages for markets, you need use subfolders or domains and subdomains to create international domains.
If you don't have international domains set up, then your language settings are the same for all of your active markets, and you can't manage settings for specific markets.
Learn more about setting up international domains.
Add a language to a market
Before you can add a language to a specific market, you need to add the language in the Languages section of your Shopify admin.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Markets.
Click the market that you want to manage languages for.
Click Languages and domains.
Click Add languages
In the Not added to this market section, click the language that you want to add.
Change a market's default language
By default, each market uses the same default language as your store's default. You can change the default language for each market to a different language.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Markets.
Click the market that you want to manage languages for.
Click Languages and domains.
Click the … icon next to the market's current default language.
Click Set as default.
Remove a language from a market
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Markets.
Click the market that you want to manage languages for.
Click Languages and domains.
Click the … icon next to the language that you want to remove.
Click Remove language.
In the dialog, click Remove.
Unpublish a language in your online store
You can unpublish a language, which hides the language from customers without deleting the language or the translations. Any links to the store in that particular language result in a 404 “Page not found” error, so create redirects for any of your unpublished languages.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages.
In the Published languages section, click the … icon next to the language that you want to make unavailable.
Click Unpublish.
In the dialog, click Unpublish.
By unpublishing a language, you also remove that language from any markets that it was added to.
Delete a language in your online store
If you're confident that you don't need translations in that language, then you can also delete the language. Deleting a language also deletes all translations of that language permanently. If you add the language again in the future, then you need to readd the translations.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages.
In the Unpublished languages section, click the … icon next to the unpublished language that you want to remove from your store.
Click Remove language.
In the dialog, click Delete.
By deleting a language, you also remove that language from any markets that it was added to.
Change the default language of your online store
You can change the default language of your store. Your default store language is used in your store's checkout and theme.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages.
In the Published languages section, click the … icon next to your current default language.
Click Change default.
In the Change default language dialog, select a language from the menu.
Click Save.