Shopify is a platform for building e-commerce and retail sites can be useful for small businesses to sell online through one dashboard. Using Shopify, you can build an online store and sell on social media, seller marketplaces, blogs and via email, text and chat.
According to CSA Research, 60% of consumers said they rarely or never buy from websites that are only in English. To ensure you’re reaching your target markets and acquiring new customers, you need to be translating your e-commerce website. You can translate your Shopify site a number of different ways: adding your own CSV files, Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app, or by using a compatible third-party. After translating the store, customers can browse, checkout, and receive notifications in their local language. Check out our breakdown of your top options below:
1. CSV Files
As one of the more straightforward options, you can simply import self-translated content via CSV files. Importing your own CSV files is advantageous because it lets you manage your translations without the use of a third-party translation app.
The process is as simple as exporting your CSV file, adding your translations, importing your files back into Shopify, and deploying your new content. The obvious issue here is that translation is not provided for you. You must do it yourself or use a translator. Some other major restrictions are:
- You need to incur all the manual work to assign receive and then publish new translations.
- You can’t translate resource tags.
- If you use a third-party app, then your app might not support selling in multiple languages by default.
- You can’t translate product URLs.
Here are some step-by-step instructions provided by Shopify for how to deploy your translations.
2. Translate & Adapt App
Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app gives you two options for website translation: manually and automatically. The app lets you use automation for up to two languages for free, but you can manually add as many translations as you want. Other useful features of the app include:
- The side-by-side editor allows you to manually add, edit, and review translations.
- Localize and adapt content to reflect grammar and messaging for different markets.
- Localize directly from your theme editor or other resource pages in your admin.
- Manage translated and localized store content from your Shopify admin.
While this may be the right option for your website, it’s important to note its limitations and languages that it won’t support. With the Translate & Adapt app, the following can’t be translated:
- Third-party app content not hosted by Shopify
- Tags and URLs
- Product images
- The following languages: Arabic, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Latin, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Tagalog (Filipino), and more.
Overall, this solution offers you control over your multilingual site and makes the process easier if you choose to automate your translation. You are limited by language selection and, because your URLs and tags cannot be translated, your SEO may suffer. But your customers will have the opportunity to see product information in their preferred language.
3. MotionPoint Proxy Solution
Lastly, MotionPoint’s proxy technology is the right choice if you’re looking to expand your e-commerce store into new markets by completely translating everything from product information to URLs to image copy. Our proxy solution automates the content detection process so you don’t have to think about it. You can operate independently of your CMS or technology stack and not burden your internal resources with technology and personnel challenges while localizing your online content.
Proxy technology uses the code and content of your original website. If you need a full, in-depth translation and localization job for your site, proxy is the fastest and most cost-effective method. We handle the entire project for you, from content detection to maintenance, allowing you to focus your internal resources on other matters.
Unlike other integrations, like plugins, where you must retain control of the whole process, our proxy solution gives you:
- Translation services
- Continuous maintenance and updates
- Project management
- Automatic workflow management
- Quality assurance
- 24/7/365 managed server hosting
Which Approach is Right for You?
Depending on what you’re looking for, you have many options to translate your WordPress website. If what you’re looking for is an easy, hands-off approach that saves you money and internal stress, you may want to opt for MotionPoint’s proxy solution. With flexibility, ease of integration, scalability, and significant cost savings, there’s a lot to love about working with MotionPoint.
Want to weigh your options? Reach out to us today to get a demo.
Last updated on June 13, 2023
