Localisation goes beyond the product page

Map every customer touchpoint

List the home page, search, product details, cart, checkout, order emails and help pages together. Translating a headline can leave essential steps in another language. Review the complete journey before setting priorities.

Create a small, stable glossary

Record product names, materials, measurement units, delivery terms and support wording while retaining the underlying facts. Use consistent terms across titles, specifications and messages. Translation may change expression, but must not change product capabilities or service promises.

Test actions as well as sentences

Ask a fluent reader to browse and place a test order: choose a variant, enter an address, interpret an error and read the confirmation. Record moments of hesitation. Correct grammar does not guarantee that the next action is clear.

Check what your platform covers

Shopify’s official localisation guidance covers separate settings for store content, language selection, checkout and notifications. Check the current documentation for your theme and apps. Enabling a language does not mean every piece of content has been translated.

Keep updates aligned

A change to specifications, delivery information or returns wording should trigger a review of other languages. Record the owner, source version, translation version and review date. These are editorial workflow suggestions; use the official source below for platform instructions.

Create a terminology and promise register

Fix product names, models, units, currencies, delivery wording and support contacts first. Record what can adapt by market and which facts must remain consistent. Translators may improve tone, but cannot invent certification, stock, refund or performance promises. Include these boundaries in the brief to reduce page-by-page rework.

Accept through tasks, not proofreading alone

Ask a target-language reader to find a specification, compare prices, understand delivery and locate support. Observe where they pause and what they ask without explaining the answer during the test. Categorise factual errors, unclear wording and process gaps, then repeat the same task after corrections. Keep page version, date and change owner.