Foundation · 2 min
What you need to know
Should my ecommerce store support multiple languages?
Support multiple languages when important customers cannot confidently evaluate and complete the journey in the default language, and the merchant can maintain the translations.
Which languages should my store support?
Choose languages using customer demand, market priority, support capability and the proportion of the journey that can be maintained accurately, not country borders alone.
Should language be selected automatically?
Automatic selection can suggest a language from browser or account signals, but it can be wrong. Show the chosen language and keep an easy manual control.
Should customers be able to manually change language?
Yes. Preserve the customer’s explicit choice across pages and checkout instead of repeatedly overriding it with location or browser detection.
Should product content be translated?
Translate customer-facing product names, descriptions, specifications, options, instructions and material limitations that affect a buying decision. Protect factual meaning during adaptation.
Should category names be translated?
Yes, when the storefront language is supported. Translate category labels and supporting copy consistently, so navigation, search and URLs do not use conflicting terminology.
Should URLs be translated?
They may be localized when the platform can keep durable, unique URLs and redirects. Do not change URLs casually each time a translation is edited.
Should checkout be translated?
Yes. Customers must understand fields, validation, total cost, payment, delivery, and consent at the point where they commit to an order.
Should transactional emails be translated?
Translate confirmations and status, delivery, cancellation, return and support messages for supported languages. Keep amounts, dates, and links generated from the actual order.
Machine translation vs human translation: which should I use?
Machine translation is useful for scale and first drafts; human review is important for high-risk, persuasive or ambiguous content. Use a risk-based workflow rather than declaring one method universally better.
A quick store check
Change language on a phone and verify navigation, product, checkout, validation, receipt and status messages remain in the selection.
Foundation · 2 min
Frequently asked questions
Should an unsupported language appear in the selector?
No. Do not promise a complete language journey that the store cannot maintain.
Can product reviews remain untranslated?
They can, if their language is clear, and the interface does not misrepresent them.