How to Translate Your Shopify Theme?

This guide explains how to translate your Shopify theme for both:

1. Stores using only one non-English language

2. Multi-language stores

You can also read Shopify’s official documentation here:
Shopify – Translate your theme

1. Single Language Store

Example: Your store only uses one language such as Arabic, German, French, Vietnamese...

1.1. Change the Store Default Language

From your Shopify Admin:

Settings → Languages

Select the language you want to use as the main language of your store.

1.2. Fix “Missing Translation” Errors

After changing to another language, you may notice this issue: Translation missing: ar.onboarding.product_title

This happens because the theme may not include full translations for your selected language.

Please go to:

Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit default theme content

Then search and manually add the missing translations.

You can also refer to this guide: How to solve missing translation errors

2. Multi-Language Store

Example: Your store uses multiple languages such as:

• English

• Arabic

• German

2.1. Add Languages to Your Store

From Shopify Admin:

Settings → Languages

Add the languages you want to support then click Publish the language.

2.2. Translate Store Content

• The theme only supports translating theme interface content such as: Cart, Search, Header, Footer, Buttons, and default theme texts...

• However, content created directly from Shopify Admin such as: Product descriptions, Collection descriptions, Pages, Blog posts, Navigation menus, Meta fields... cannot be fully translated using only the theme locale files.

For multi-language stores, using a translation app is highly recommended.

Popular translation apps:

• Translate & Adapt: Free app from Shopify, suitable for most basic stores.

• Weglot: AI & Human Translate: Supports automatic translation and multilingual SEO.

• Langify: Good for detailed manual translation control.

• T Lab - AI Language Translate: AI-powered translation with automatic content syncing.

3. Translate Theme Locale Files Manually

If you want more control over translations, you can manually edit the locale files.

Go to:

Online Store → Themes → Edit code

Then open:

/locales

Example locale files:

ar.json
de.json
fr.json
vi.json

Use:

/locales/en.default.json

as the reference file for translation.

Example:

"cart_count": {
      "zero": "Cart is empty",
      "one": "Item in cart: {{ count }}",
      "other": "Total items in cart: {{ count }}"
    },

Translated version:

"cart_count": {
      "zero": "Warenkorb ist leer",
      "one": "Artikel im Warenkorb: {{ count }}",
      "other": "Gesamtanzahl Artikel im Warenkorb: {{ count }}"
    },

4. Using AI for Translation

You can use AI tools such as:

• ChatGPT to help translate smaller parts of locale files.

Important notes:

• Do not translate very large files at once

• Translate smaller sections step by step

• Keep special variables unchanged:

  • {{ }}

  • {{{ }}}

  • %s

  • HTML tags

Example:

"cart.general.total": "Total: {{ price }}"

AI tools may accidentally remove variables like {{ price }} if not handled carefully.