Non Latin Character issue for shipping labels

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

A merchant is struggling to purchase shipping labels for customers whose addresses contain non-Latin characters (e.g., Polish characters in “Górnośląska”). The address is correct but cannot be translated or substituted, creating a shipping label generation problem.

Proposed Solutions:

  • Address Validify app: Validates and blocks non-Latin characters at checkout through customizable rules (blocking special characters, PO boxes, enforcing length requirements, regex matching). Works without Shopify Plus or checkout.liquid modifications.

  • Address Logic app: Automatically translates addresses containing non-Latin characters, potentially preserving conversion rates by not requiring customers to modify their input.

Key Trade-off:
Blocking non-Latin characters (first solution) may reduce conversion rates by forcing customers to enter addresses differently than usual, while automatic translation (second solution) maintains the customer experience.

The discussion remains open with no clear resolution on which approach best balances shipping label compatibility with customer convenience.

Summarized with AI on October 31. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi,

Has there/is there a solution for purchasing shipping labels for customers with non Latin characters in their shipping address? For the most part this hasn’t been an issue, or if it is I’ve been able to translate and make that work.

However occasionally (much like today), there’s a certain address that doesn’t have a translation, and I’m not entirely sure what to do because clearly it’s not incorrect.

For example, we have a customer that lives in a region called Górnośląska, which has no translation and can’t be substituted. I’m not going to ask the customer for a new address as what they gave me isn’t incorrect

Ideas for this?

2

Hi salDmoto,

For handling non-Latin characters in addresses, Address Validify provides a simple solution:

Our app allows you to validate fields such as First Name, Last Name, Address Line 1 and 2, City, Zip Code, Phone, and more. You can customize validation rules, including:

  • Blocking Non-Latin Characters
  • Missing House Number
  • Preventing PO Box Addresses
  • Field Minimum/Maximum Length Checker
  • Keyword and Regular Expression (Regex) Matching
  • Blocking Extra White Spaces
  • Blocking Numbers

Additionally, you can apply these validations at the cart level, block specific zip codes, and apply rules without needing a Shopify Plus plan. Address Validify integrates seamlessly without checkout.liquid file modifications—just install the app, configure your validation rules, and it will handle everything.

This should help prevent issues with shipping labels containing non-Latin characters, offering a streamlined solution.

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Regards,
Devesha Solution.

3

This solution will lower the conversion rate since it requires the customer to write it in a different way than they might be used to.
My app can translate the address automatically: https://apps.shopify.com/address-logic-1