Shopify needs to update their basic functionalities ASAP.
Lacking in aspects such as these makes selling internationally have a lot more friction, as we are constantly facing unnecessary technical barriers such as this one.
Topic summary
Shopify’s new Marketing Email Automations (for abandoned carts, product browsing, welcome emails, etc.) lack proper multilingual support, preventing merchants from translating automated sections for international customers.
Core Issues:
- Product titles, “Recover Cart” buttons, and other automated sections display only in the store’s primary language
- Links don’t respect customer locale properties
- Footer elements like “unsubscribe” text remain untranslatable
- Shopify Inbox doesn’t pass correct locale properties during customer creation
Workarounds Identified:
- Use conditional “if” statements in workflows based on
customer.localeto create separate emails per language - Apply filters in automation workflows using customer locale (e.g., filtering for “es” for Spanish)
- Utilize custom Liquid emails as suggested in Shopify’s documentation
- Add
customer.localesteps in Shopify Flow to route customers to language-specific email templates (see attached workflow screenshot)
Current Status:
Despite promises from Shopify developers in February that multilingual features were “coming soon,” the issue persists as of mid-2024. Multiple merchants express frustration that this limitation makes email automation “completely useless” for international stores, creating unnecessary friction for global selling.
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