Global expansion, localizing content, and selling in multiple currencies and languages
I have just launched my website in Japan with the base language being Japanese. I currently would like to be able to sell in English as well as a way to hit the international market and internationals in Japan. I bought a theme that is multi-language compatible (with Japanese and English) yet the translation for English is extremely subpar. The translation is riddled with spelling errors, mistaken capitalization and grammatical errors. I attempted to use a third-party application yet it was not good enough as well.
Is there another alternative way to add language?
Can I personally write the translation in English while keeping the base website in Japanese?
Hey there @MihoKuyu!
Don here from Shopify.
Thanks for outlining your query here on our Community forums.
I understand you're not happy with the translation included with your theme.
Not to worry, as it should be possible for you to manually improve this yourself.
Take a look at our guide to editing languages via your admin.
As per that guide, if your theme includes other languages then you can change the text for those languages too.
Check it out in your own store, see if you can find your theme's English translation and if you can improve that yourself.
Have you launched your store already for the Japanese language market, and are you looking to also be able to sell internationally or to English speakers where you are in the future?
If so, do you have a marketing plan in place for this new audience or have you thought about what currency you will sell to them in?
We've got some good general info on selling in Japan here, if you're already set up and selling some of this may not be relevant for you but there are further resources available you may still benefit from.
All the best!
Regards,
Don
Don | Social Care @ Shopify
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Hi Don,
Thank you for your swift response.
It seems as if i had not explained myself properly. The language editor section already has well translated the specific section properly.
I would like the whole website to be read in Japanese and English. The body test for my "about" page and "product description" section on the product page is written in Japanese as it is a Japanese website first. However, when selecting the English language of the website, I would like for these specific section to be in English. These are parts that I had personally put into the website. If possible, I would rather be able to write this section in English as well as having it in Japanese as a base. Can this be done?
Thank you again for your support.
Best Regard,
Mihokuyu
Hi again @MihoKuyu.
Don from Shopify once again.
Apologies for not getting back to you sooner here, as I had been off work for a couple of days.
It sounds like you're referring to having the content of pages you create using the Online store > Pages menu in your admin be available in different languages, which may not be possible using the Edit Language function discussed.
If you could share a link to your store and confirm what text you're referring to in your store and where we should be able to confirm that for you here.
Should it prove necessary, you may be interested in getting a custom commerce experience created for you by a Shopify Expert.
Regards,
Don
Don | Social Care @ Shopify
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Hi @Don,
No worries!
Yes, I am referring to the content of pages that I had created through the page menu.
The webiste link is: https://pearlish.jp/pages/concept & https://pearlish.jp/collections/%E3%83%94%E3%82%A2%E3%82%B9/products/dangling-pearl-earring?variant=...
The content in the "concept" page and "product" page's description is currently in Japanese. I am keen on making it so when choosing the English language setting these specific content on the pages will turn English so it can be read internationally.
Thank you for your continued support.
Best Regards.
Hi again @MihoKuyu!
Don from Shopify once again.
Thanks for those links and for outlining your query so clearly, that's really helpful!
For this level of customisation, you'd likely need to consider hiring a Shopify Expert from our Marketplace.
This might be a custom commerce experience specifically, but take a look around on the Experts Marketplace and see what sort of project you might want to engage in.
Have you checked out our Japanese Help Centre before?
Let me know if you have any other questions I can help out with from here at all!
Regards,
Don
Don | Social Care @ Shopify
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Hi Don
I need some advice on languages option. My website Brooklyn theme is English set in UK. What if for example someone in china looks at my website will the text automatically change to Chinese or do I have to install a language app?
Also I went to setting>store languages>translated languages>unpublished languages. What is this option? Does text translate automatically? It asks me to publish, and something about a subdomain. Do I need a translation app or shall I use the publish option?
Please help its so confusing.
Thanks
Sun
Hi there @mrsun!
Don from Shopify once again.
In order for a customer to automatically see your store in a different language, local to them, you would need to look into using a translation app from our store.
You can, however, manually set up other languages for your store in the settings > store languages menu as you were asking about.
Check out our help doc on selling in multiple languages here to learn what you can do with this functionality, what the requirements would be to do so, and what restrictions are in place.
Spend some time reading over that guide in depth as it will answer a lot of the questions you have posed here about this functionality.
Of course, if there is anything else I can help with please just let me know!
Regards,
Don
Don | Social Care @ Shopify
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Hi Don
Many thanks for reply. Much appreciated.
I have two questions if you don’t mind.
In regards to the manual translation settings > store languages example, I added Chinese. And when I click on preview it gives me a zh-CN at the end of co.uk in the url. On the preview website the website is still in English, only one or two word are translated in Chinese. Why is that? Do I need to publish first or do I need to install a third party translation app? Also if I do publish and have the url zh-CN. I will still keep the original co.uk url, right? The zh-CN is only for customers in china.
Second question is I have a Brooklyn theme website, the multiple currency switcher is at the bottom of website, footer for some reason. How do I put the currency switch option in the header top of website where customers can see?
Thank you again for your time.
Sunny
Hi again @mrsun!
Don from Shopify once again.
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you here as I was away from work for a couple of days since we last spoke.
If you'll refer again to the guide shared above on using multiple languages, that will contain a lot of the info you need here.
Check out the requirements listed there which include that you'd need a compatible translation app in place.
You can also find info there on how domain URLs would work in this situation, which confirms that your original store domain stays in place with extra domain extensions added for any extra languages you have added yourself.
For your theme question, as you're using a free Shopify theme if you are on a paid plan you can see about getting support for the edit you mentioned with the currency switcher.
In order to see if this would be something you can get support for specifically, you can reach out via our help centre where we'll be able to provide account-specific support like this.
All the best!
Regards,
Don
Don | Social Care @ Shopify
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