As a Shopify business owner, you’ve certainly considered expanding your reach and selling overseas at some point. After all, it’ll almost certainly increase your sales.

Why is it so important to have multilingual options?

To begin, you must raise your profile and attract as many visitors as possible. That’s why being indexed by Google and other search engines is so important—and being searchable in multiple languages is critical if you’re going worldwide.

If you want to get the most out of multilingualism, you’ll need to follow the major technical prerequisites. You won’t appear in search results if your online store isn’t in the language your potential customer is searching in… This means they won’t be able to find you!

Does Shopify offer multilingual options?

Although Shopify does not provide a native solution for making your business multilingual, there are various options for adding different languages to your store.

Option 1: Creating multiple stores

It’s easy to get caught up in the temptation of simply creating additional stores. The main issue is that it is extremely tough to maintain and manage – not just in terms of operating costs and updating several websites with new products and changes, but also in terms of stock management.

That doesn’t even address the issue of how you’ll translate this new website; you’ll need to give translations for all of the material and products on your Shopify store.

Option 2: Using a Shopify theme that is multilingual

When it comes to developing a multilingual Shopify store, a common assumption is that you only need to choose a theme that is multilingual-ready and has a language switcher. It may appear to be a smart idea at first, but many of these themes have limited functionality, and some simply let you translate your shop’s content, not the checkout or any system messages.

There is also a significant amount of manual work involved. You’ll need to translate plain text, HTML, and be especially careful when translating any of your store’s templating language. While using a multilingual Shopify theme is conceivable, the manual drawbacks it entails can be rather inconvenient – this is especially true for people who have previously built a store and now need to change templates.

Option 3: Using a Shopify app that is multilingual

Using a multi-language translation program is the simplest and most comprehensive approach to translate your Shopify store. You will not need to replicate your Shopify store, nor will you require a multilingual theme.

Using a software like Weglot, you can easily add different languages to your store. You can add hundreds of languages to your store in minutes with Weglot. It not only detects and instantly translates your entire Shopify site, but it also manages your newly translated store’s multilingual SEO.

That’s it!

To truly satisfy the expectations of overseas customers and boost your sales as a result, you need to consider building multilingual stores.

It’s essential that you invest both time and money in high-quality translation services. This will keep you up to date on modern business practices. At K&J Translations we are here to help you ensure the highest quality translations, bringing your business to the next level.