Shopify Markets: how to make your Shopify store multilingual.

01What Shopify Markets is and what it costs

What

Buyer groups with their own settings

For whom

Stores selling to several countries

Cost

Included on all plans

In Shopify, a market is a group of buyers you set up a specific shopping experience for, usually a country or region. For each market you set languages, prices, a domain or subfolder and which products are available. Markets can inherit settings from parent markets. If no matching market defines a setting, the store defaults apply.[6]

According to the pricing page, Markets, store translation and local domains per market are part of every plan, from Basic to Plus:[1]

What the plans themselves cost per month is covered in our overview of plans and fees.

02Add languages and translate your store

Tool

Translate & Adapt, free

Automatic

Up to two languages

Theme

Needs a language selector

Check your theme first. Most Shopify themes include country and language selectors that you switch on in the theme editor. Custom themes must not hardcode internal links such as /cart, otherwise visitors end up in the wrong language or currency. Shopify recommends the Liquid routes object for this.[3] Then:

1. Add the new language in the admin and assign it to the right markets.[6]
2. Translate, for example with Translate & Adapt. The app translates automatically, and you add to and review the text in an editor next to the original.[2]
3. Publish the language. Shopify then creates its own subfolder, for example /fr.[3]

Translate & Adapt is made by Shopify and free. Automatic translations are included for up to two languages, or eight in selected countries. You can add manual translations in as many languages as you like.[2] Where a translation is missing, Shopify uses a fallback language and finally the store’s primary language.[6]

Automation saves time but does not replace a person. Use it as a draft, then check by hand what sells: product names, sizes, shipping details, the home page. Add your own SEO titles and descriptions for key products in every language. Have terms and privacy policy checked by a qualified professional in each language.

03Subfolder, subdomain or a separate domain per country

Common

Subfolders such as /fr

Clear country signal

Own domain such as .de

Not recommended

Language via URL parameter

Google recommends a separate URL for each language version instead of switching language by cookie or browser setting.[7] Shopify offers three options per market: a subfolder, a subdomain or a separate domain.[6] Google lists these pros and cons:[7]

Google does not recommend URLs with parameters such as ?loc=de.[7] Shopify creates subfolders for languages and markets automatically for stores with a Liquid theme.[6]

For a Swiss store that often means a .ch domain with subfolders for French and Italian. If a large share of your orders comes from Germany, a separate .de domain for that market can follow later. A domain you already own can be connected to Shopify.[1]

04What Google needs to see: hreflang, sitemap and redirects

What

Links between language versions

Who

Shopify sets them automatically

Check

Full content translated, selector visible

With hreflang you tell Google which pages are translations of each other. Each version must list itself and all others. If two pages do not point to each other, Google ignores the annotations. The language comes first, then optionally the country, for example de-CH. A country code on its own is invalid.[8] Shopify outputs the hreflang annotations in the theme automatically.[3]

Google detects language from visible text, not from the lang attribute in the code. If only the menu and footer are translated but not the content, Google says this can be a bad experience, because the same content shows up several times in search results.[7] So translate the full content. How Google reads a store beyond that is covered in our guide on how Google finds and understands your store.

Shopify can automatically send customers to the domain or subfolder of their market.[1] Google, on the other hand, advises against automatically redirecting users between language versions and recommends letting them choose.[7] A clearly visible country and language selector in the header or footer is therefore part of the setup.[3]

If the store shows the right market but the wrong language, check which languages are assigned to that market.[6] If the selected language is not available in the customer’s country, Shopify switches to that country’s default language. Hardcoded links in the theme also send visitors back to the default language.[3]

05Currencies, prices and taxes per market

Requirement

Shopify Payments

Switzerland

Shopify Payments since 2022

Prices

Rounding, percentage or fixed price

According to the pricing page, Shopify shows prices in local currencies only with Shopify Payments.[1] In Switzerland, Shopify Payments has been available since September 2022.[9] Customers then pay in their currency and you get paid in yours.[10]

For prices that do not look converted, you have several options. Automatic conversion can round prices. If that is not enough, create a catalog for the market. There you adjust all prices by a percentage or set a fixed price for individual variants.[6] Products you do not want to sell in a market are removed from that market’s catalog. Customers in that market then do not see them.[6]

Shopify can estimate and collect duties and taxes at checkout on all plans.[1] Whether you have to charge VAT in a country is a question for a tax professional. It depends on where you are based and on your sales, not on Shopify.

06Checkout, store emails and Klaviyo in every language

Checkout

In the customer’s language

Store emails

Check with a test order

Klaviyo

Smart Translations, paid accounts only

With several languages and currencies, Shopify says customers browse the store and check out in their preferred language and currency.[3] Still check every language with a test order: checkout, order confirmation and shipping email. That way you see missing or clumsy text before customers do.

Marketing emails do not translate themselves. Klaviyo offers Smart Translations for this: a campaign or flow goes out in each recipient’s preferred language. It requires a paid Klaviyo account. By default Klaviyo reads the language from the Locale property, which the Shopify integration fills through Markets. Profiles without a recognized language get the default language you set in Klaviyo. Klaviyo uses machine translation and AI and itself advises reviewing every version before sending.[11]

Which flows a store needs in the first place is covered in our guide to the automated emails every store should have.

07A multilingual Shopify store for Switzerland

Languages

German, French, Italian

Currency

CHF through Shopify Payments

Payment

TWINT through Shopify Payments

In Switzerland, 61% of the population name German or Swiss German as their main language, 23% French, 8% Italian and 0.4% Romansh (2024 figures). The main language is the one a person knows best, and several are possible.[5] For a store with customers across the country, French is therefore usually the second language and Italian the third.

Three points Swiss stores often notice too late:

• Francs for Switzerland and euros for the EU side by side require Shopify Payments.[1] It has been available to stores in Switzerland since 2022.[9]
• Shopify offers TWINT, the Swiss payment app, as a local payment method through Shopify Payments. In May 2026 it was added for stores based in more countries, such as Austria, Italy and the Netherlands. Your payment settings show whether TWINT is available for your store.[4]
• Prices for Switzerland and the EU often differ because of VAT. Decide for each market whether your prices include tax.

For French and Italian the same rule applies as above: automation as a draft, then a check by someone who speaks the language as their main language. Clumsy product copy stands out immediately to customers in Romandy or Ticino.

08Order of steps, limits and when to get help

Do it yourself

A second language on a standard theme

Get help

Custom theme, several domains, taxes

At nalu

Szymon

The order we recommend:

1. Define markets: which countries, which language, which currency.
2. Check the theme, add languages, translate, review by hand.
3. Assign a domain or subfolder to each market.
4. Set currency, prices and payment methods per market.
5. Place a test order in each market and look at the emails.
6. Submit the sitemap for every domain in Google Search Console. Shopify creates it automatically.[12][13]

Honest limits. Shopify keeps changing Markets, and menu names can move. Our details are as of November 2026. A second language on a standard theme with a subfolder is something you can manage yourself. With a custom theme, several domains, prices per market or taxes in several countries, help pays off. Tax and legal questions belong with a qualified professional.

From our work. The store of ZinCuTec, a metal furniture maker from Germany, now runs in five languages: German, English, French, Spanish and Italian. More in the ZinCuTec case study. Multilingual stores are Szymon’s area at nalu, more on our page about Shopify stores by nalu. How languages, payments and emails fit together across a store is covered in our overview of building an online store that sells. If you are still moving, use the checklist for switching to Shopify.