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Best Practices for Setting Up Multi-Language Stores and Market Redirection

When selling globally, offering the right languages and routing customers to the correct market are essential for creating a smooth, localized shopping experience. 

This guide outlines best practices for:

  • Enabling language and country/region selectors on your storefront
  • Translating your store content using different methods
  • Redirecting customers to the appropriate market
  • Troubleshooting common multi-language issues
     

 

Introduction

In SHOPLINE, a single store can operate across multiple markets, and each market can support several languages. For example, a store might serve the US, UK, and Japan markets, with the US market offering both English and Spanish to create a more localized shopping experience.

To learn how to add more markets, please see "Creating and Configuring Markets." 

 

 

Enabling Language and Country Selectors

The language and country selectors let customers choose their preferred language or region directly from your storefront. There are two ways to enable these selectors:

Method 1: Enable Selectors in the Theme Editor

  1. Go to Admin > Online Store > Design and open the Theme Editor.

  2. Click on the Header or Footer component, then enable:

    • Display language selector
    • Display country/region selector
  3. Once enabled, both selectors will appear on your storefront.
     

Method 2: Enable Selectors via the Geolocation Redirects App

  1. Install the Geolocation Redirects app from the SHOPLINE App Store.

  2. In the app, go to the Footer language selector for countries tab and enable the footer country language selector.

    01-16-2026_05_18_PM.png

  3. The selectors will appear in the footer only (not in the header).
Note: Even if your store operates in just one market, you can still offer multiple language options to your customers.

 

 

Translating Your Store Content

You can translate your store’s content in four ways. These methods can be used individually or combined, depending on your needs.

 

Method 1: UGC Multi-Language Visual Translator (User-Generated Content, UGC App) — Recommended

The UGC Multi-Language Visual Translator app lets you customize translations for products, collections, blogs, pages, apps, and more. It’s ideal if you want full control and accuracy over your translations.

Please see "Multi-Language Translator: Adding and Managing Store Content Translations" for detailed instructions.

 

Method 2: Export/Import Translation Text In Bulk

This option is useful for making bulk translation updates. You can export your store’s full translation file, make edits (for example, changing "color" to "colour" across all product pages), and then re-import the file to apply changes.

To access:

  1. Go to Admin > Settings > Languages > Import custom translation text.
    01-16-2026_05_25_PM.png
  2. Export translations as a CSV file.
  3. Edit the file and re-import it to apply changes.

Please see "Managing Store Languages and Translations" for detailed instructions.

 

Method 3: Edit System Default Text

Use this option to customize built-in system text, such as "page not found," "copyright," or button labels.

To access:

  1. Go to Admin > Online Store > Design.

  2. In the live theme section, click the more icon (…) next to the Preview button and select Edit default text.

    01-16-2026_05_28_PM.png

  3. Choose a language, search for the text field you want to update, and edit it directly.

    01-16-2026_05_29_PM.png

 

 

Setting Up Market Redirection

If you want to direct visitors to the right market based on their country or region, while showing the appropriate language and currency, SHOPLINE offers two market redirection options. You can choose the option that best fits your market priorities and SEO needs. For more details, refer to "Redirecting Customers to the Right Market".

 

 

Troubleshooting Commonly Encountered Issues

This section covers common issues you may encounter when setting up multiple languages or market redirection, along with steps to quickly identify the root cause and resolve the problem.

 

Scenario 1: Store content doesn’t translate after switching languages

If your store content does not translate after changing languages, try the following steps:

  1. Check whether the untranslated content has a translation in the UGC Multi-Language Visual Translator app. If no translation has been added, the content is displayed in your default language.
  2. Check for untranslated text: go to Admin > Online Store > Design > Edit Default Text and check for untranslated system text.
  3. If the issue persists, export and review all translations:
    • Export all translations via Admin > Settings > Languages > Import custom translation text > Export.
    • Review the CSV file for any missing entries.
       

Scenario 2: Language selector not showing

If the language selector is missing from your storefront, make sure it’s enabled in the Theme Editor or through the Geolocation Redirects app.