Languages and currencies

Shopify handles the languages, countries and currencies your store sells in. Fine Print gives shoppers selectors to switch between them, and its own storefront text comes in six languages.

Set up countries and currencies in Shopify

The country selector lists the countries in your active markets, each with its currency. You create markets and choose their currencies in Shopify admin, on the Markets page. Read Shopify’s guide to Markets and Shopify’s guide to selling in multiple currencies.

Add languages in Shopify

In Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages.
Click Add language, pick a language, then click Next.
Turn on the domains that should offer the language, then click Done.
Add your translations, then publish the language from the menu next to it.

Shoppers only see published languages. See Shopify’s guide to adding languages.

Where the selectors show

A selector only shows when there is something to choose. The country selector needs more than one country available, and the language selector needs more than one published language. A single-language, single-country store shows neither, whatever the settings say.

You can show the selectors in two places. Each has its own Show country/region selector and Show language selector checkboxes:

In the Header section, the selectors share one button in the header bar on screens 750 pixels wide and up. On smaller screens, the same two settings put them at the bottom of the menu drawer.
In the Footer section, the selectors show in the bottom bar.

All four checkboxes are on in a new install, so each selector shows in both the header and the footer. Turn one off if you want a selector in one place only.

What shoppers see

In the header, one button holds both selectors. It shows a globe and the current choice, such as “United States (USD $) / EN”: the country, its currency code and symbol, and the language code. On screens narrower than 990 pixels the country shows as its code, such as “US (USD $) / EN”. With the Logo centered or Split layout, the button also uses the code wherever the country’s name would come too close to the logo. It opens a panel with a list of countries and a list of languages.

In the menu drawer and the footer, each selector is its own dropdown. The country one shows the current country with its currency, such as “Canada (CAD $)”.

Every country list shows each country with its currency code and symbol. Languages show in their own language, such as “Deutsch” or “Français”. Picking an option reloads the page in the new country or language. The theme shows no flags.

The six theme languages

Fine Print ships its storefront text, such as button labels, cart messages and form errors, in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch.

When you publish one of these languages, the theme’s own text appears in it without any work from you. Text you typed yourself, such as headings in sections, product descriptions and menu items, still needs translating.

The theme editor also shows Fine Print’s setting names in these six languages, following the language of your Shopify admin.

To change a piece of the theme’s built-in text, such as the wording of the add to cart button, go to Online Store > Themes, open the three-dot menu next to the theme, then click Edit default theme content. See Shopify’s guide to changing theme wording.

Translate your content with Translate & Adapt

Shopify’s free Translate & Adapt app translates the text you added: products, collections, pages, blog posts, policies, and the headings and text inside theme sections.

In Shopify admin, go to Apps > Translate & Adapt.
Pick the language to translate into.
Choose the content to translate, such as a product, a page or your theme.
Translate by hand, or use Auto-translate.

See Shopify’s guide to Translate & Adapt.

A Mega menu block matches its Menu item to the menu title in the shopper’s language. When you translate a top-level menu title, translate the block’s Menu item the same way. See Navigation and menus.