How can I change my Shopify store's language to German?

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Topic summary

A store owner set German as the primary language, but the storefront displays in English; they asked how to convert the site to German. A Shopify advisor recommended using translation apps (Langify, Weglot, GTranslate, LangShop) or the native theme language editor, noting product and page content often require manual translation.

The owner reported the default Shopify option isn’t working; the advisor requested specifics (e.g., screenshots) and linked help docs, suggesting direct support via chat/email for account-level troubleshooting.

A designer for a Turkish client asked to make Turkish the default language. Testing showed theme UI (buttons) switched, but product titles/descriptions remained in English, requiring manual edits. A screenshot was shared to illustrate changes.

The designer later added ETranslate and the Geolocation app (detects visitor location to suggest language). Both languages appear, but English still shows first—even in Turkey; adding “/tr” to the URL forces Turkish.

The advisor said using “/tr” as the main URL is a viable option and recommended contacting support for real-time, store-specific guidance. No definitive resolution yet; next steps are app/native translations, URL-based default language, and support escalation.

Summarized with AI on February 24. AI used: gpt-5.
6

Hi @DanSrokosz ,

Really great question and I can fully understand any potential hesitancy. It will depend on the theme, the language, how much things are customized such as apps etc.

I did a test change on my test store to give you an idea:

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It looks like the buttons and some other aspects have changed, but the product descriptions/titles/homepage text seem to still be in English so you’d need to change those manually in the Language editor.

There are some apps you can look into helping with this too but you may not need them. The one I like the most is Langify. There’s also the Shopify help guide for this here.