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Expand Shopify Store Globally (Internationalize) - Hey, everybody.,This is Ori from Astral Web, and

Astral Web Inc.

Updated on Feb 20,2023

Expand Shopify Store Globally (Internationalize)

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Expand Shopify Store Globally (Internationalize)

- Hey, everybody.,This is Ori from Astral Web, and today I'm going to showcase to you how to expand,your Shopify business, your Shopify website, to support international efforts, to support customers,in different countries, in different languages with different currencies, and different needs,,most importantly.,Okay?,So, what I did for this video is I set up a site called freedomware21.com, just a demo site, which supports,three countries, U.S., France, and Taiwan.,So for example, if I go to the Taiwan site, you'll see that everything is translated,,everything is in different currencies, etc.,So you'll see, for example, the price here is $1,958, but if I go back to my U.S. site,,you'll see that it's $70.,So this would be U.S.dollars, in Taiwan it would be Taiwan dollars, and French,,it would be euros, etc., etc.,Okay.,So, what do you need to know before we actually walk you through all of the back end,,how to set up all of these things?,Number one is, as a business, you need to figure out who can you support.,So, you need to figure out which countries do you want to support, what languages do you want to support,,what currencies do you want to support, and legally and tax-wise,,how do you actually work with those, how do you ship to them.,So, you have to figure out all the logistics and the legal parts.,This video is obviously going to skip that, but you need to do your own research internally,,how to figure out which countries, languages, etc., you support.,Now, a few small tips, number one, make sure, legally, you understand where you can ship to,and the laws related to that country.,Number two is you need to figure out your shipping rates and your shipping times because when people,buy online, they don't want to pay a lot for shipping and they want to get their products very, very quickly.,So figure out the countries that fit for you.,The third thing is customer support.,So, you need to translate for the languages, the countries that you're supporting,,you need to translate them.,In most cases, English is not going to support for most non-English speaking countries.,So you need to translate it.,Do not use Google Translate or some kind of cheap way.,If you cannot translate it to a local, a mother tongue language, and you can't have customer,support supporting that, for example, if someone in Spain asks you some question,,but they ask you in Spanish, if you don't have customer support or people helping,with that, don't translate that.,So make sure you can support those countries correctly.,If not, start slowly with the countries you can support and then figure out over time how to expand.,Great.,So let's start and let's set up a few scenarios.,I'm going to walk you through two or three different scenarios and show you all of the settings,in the back end.,The first thing we're going to start with is the most easy way to expand globally, which is if you have,very, very little effort.,The first thing you want to do is basically support your currencies, or global currencies, right?,So have the website still in English or still in your regular language, typically English,,and then just add currency.,So, let's start and give some examples.,I've already set these things up.,So I'm going to show you how I did these things.,Okay?,So, first of all, we have three countries.,Okay?,So, the first thing we want to do is we want to go to the back end right here and we want to go to Settings.,First thing you're going to do, assuming you don't have all of the countries,,you're just going to go here to...,Right here to Payments and you're going to go to your payment gateway.,Now, in order to support different currencies, you have to use Shopify payments or a specific payment,provider that has multiple payments.,Right now, Shopify Payments is the easy one to do it.,So what you do is you would activate it, or if it's activated, and you click on Manage here.,Now, because this is a demo store for this video, we use the Shopify, what they call Bogus Gateway,,which is the Shopify test gateway.,It's the same exact as this one, the real one, but it's for test sites.,And so, what I do is I have the Manage button here.,When you're live, you'd have the Manage right here, and what you do here is you go to Manage,,and then you go down here to Countries and Regions, and you're going to basically add the countries,and regions that you want.,For example, let's say I wanted Germany.,I would just click here, Add, and then it would be located here.,Okay?,Now, I'm going to remove it because I want to still focus on these countries that I set up,,but it's basically the same.,Now, once you add the countries and regions, which, mostly, is talking about the currency,,you're going to make sure that you have Rounding on enabled and you're going to have to know that every,country has certain better practice numbers.,So, for example, in U.S., you have...,A lot of good pricing should round to, like, 0.99 or 0.95, or something like that.,In Taiwan, for example, there's no decimals at all.,So what you would do, you'd go to Edit and then you'd go to...,Right here, to the new Taiwan dollar, and then you can set up your exchange rate.,Either you set up your own exchange rate or automatically, but because exchange rates,,let's say you have U.S. dollar and Taiwan dollar, numbers are going to be very weird, like,,three dollars would be a very strange number.,So what you can do is you can round it to the nearest dollar or round it to the nearest 0.99,,0.95, 0.90, etc.,In Taiwan, specifically, this is why you need to do research to customize,for your specific country, there's no decimals for Taiwan dollars.,So you'd have to do the round to the nearest zero-zero and that's correct here.,Okay?,Great.,Okay.,So, you'd have to do that for all countries and now you've set up your currencies, okay?,So this is step number one.,If you set up your currencies correctly, then on your theme, either on the top or the bottom,,depending on the theme, you're going to have your currency selectors right here.,Now, in order to support internationalization, your theme must support it.,If your theme doesn't support it, you need a developer to actually go ahead and actually,have to do some coding, right?,So they have to modify that.,So, when you choose a theme, make sure there's settings for that.,If not, you'd have to edit code, ask the developer to do that.,In many cases, for example, you can click on the customize and you can figure out,if there is this thing.,So, for example, I go here to the Footer, you can see there's a language selection,and a country/region selector.,Okay?,So, these things, I know it supports multiple languages because I could see it right here.,Perfect.,So once I set that up, now I have my currencies, right?,So now, if I go here, right here, I can go right here.,Let's say $70.,Obviously, I switch to the other country.,Okay.,Now, if you only want to do currency selectors, you won't have the countries, you'll only have,,for the same main website, you'll have these currency selectors.,Okay?,So this is step number one, setting up currencies.,Step number two...Number two, what you want to do is...,The scenario number two is, let's say you want to internationalize, you want to make your website,support multiple languages.,What you would do is you'd go here to Store Languages and then this is your main language,,for example, English.,What you would do is you'd add more languages here and it would add them here to the additional language.,So let's say I have French and Chinese, and I want to add another language, and I want to add,just for example, Dutch.,Okay?,So I'm going to click here and add, and then once I finish this,,it's going to be under the Unpublished Languages.,Okay?,Once I want to publish it, I can click on Publish.,And once I do that, it'll basically be right here.,So I'm going to delete this.,Okay.,Now, once you publish this, we need to actually start translating things.,Okay.,So let's click here.,Okay.,So how do I translate things?,Now, Shopify by default doesn't have an easy way to translate.,There's two things you need to know about translations.,Number one, anything in this list...,Sorry, excuse me.,Some of the things, some of these languages, the main languages in this list, already have,translations for Shopify default things.,Okay?,Things like the email templates, things like the word sign in, log out,,things like the checkout, the cart, etc.,But what you will need to do if you decide to support a certain language, you have to create translations.,So in order to do so, you're going to have to use a third-party app,to install and then translate everything.,So I want to show you an app that we use right here.,Okay?,So what you're going to do, obviously, we created our languages and we publish them.,So I go here and I use this Translate My Store app, and I just want to show you this app right here.,Let's show you the app right here.,I'm going to put the URLs in the description and you'll be able...,So, what you're going to do is you're going to click on Add and then, there's a few options for this.,So once you do it, you click on Add and you install it.,Okay?,Once you install it, you're going to go here, and let's say, you're going to set up for the first time,,and you're going to make sure that your currencies that you've selected, and your languages,,are set up.,Now, if you've already followed my steps on Settings, they'll be correct, but you can always view them,and you can look at them, simply.,Now, on the left-hand side, you have everything here.,So you can view your languages.,These are my languages.,Same thing we saw here on the settings, English, Chinese, French.,Okay?,And then, I can go here to my regions and currencies, and I can see everything here.,Again, we recommend to do all the settings here and just view it on the app.,Now, once you do this, this specific app has a simple widget that you can easily...,If your theme doesn't support changing your language and your currency, then it has a, kind of like,a pop-up button that allows this.,So it can actually have some kind of easy language selector here, but our theme does.,So we're going to turn it off.,Okay?,Now, what do you need to do?,You actually need to translate.,So, this app itself has a few things.,It has manual translation, which is you translate everything, and has auto translation.,I don't recommend to do the auto translation because you want a native speaker, either you guys,,your company, or a professional translation company to translate it.,If you use Google Translate or some kind of code translation, your local customer from whatever country,that would be would probably leave the website quickly.,If they see something that is wrong, they know something is strange,,the user experience is bad, they just leave the website.,Invest money to translate things correctly.,Okay?,Perfect.,So, what do we need to do?,We need to translate things.,So how do we translate?,There's quite a few things to translate.,So, the first thing you need to do is you need to choose the language you want to translate.,So, for example, Chinese, Traditional, and I need to choose what to translate.,Do I want to translate my collections, my products, my product variants, my email templates, my blog,,articles, pages, etc.,In general, you have to translate everything, unless you don't use some things.,For example, we don't use SMS template, so I don't need to translate this.,But what you would do, typically, if it's a new site, you'd click on All and then you would go here,,and then you can select which ones are already translated.,For example, I want to translate only the ones that are not translated yet or all of them,,and I can click on All, and then I can load them.,And what I can do here, and this is with the free version of this app, you can go one by one.,You see, and you can translate this collection.,For example, Home Page, I can translate it here, I can type in whatever word in Chinese, and etc., etc.,And what you're going to do, you're going to do one by one,,this is the original English language, and this is the translation for the language you just selected,,for example, Chinese.,And you're going to go one by one.,Here, there's 334 pages, right?,If you have a busy site, a site that has a lot of content,,you're going to have a lot more.,This is within the free version.,Excuse me.,So, what you need to do, if you want to just use the free version,,you're going to have to go one by one, slowly, carefully, carefully, carefully.,But what I recommend is for you to upgrade the plan and then use Import/Export in Excel.,So if you upgrade your plan, for example, we've done that, you can use the Import Translation.,So, you can see here in the plans, you can view yourself, based on the number,of translation, but for us as a company, we like to use the Import Translation because,we can just use a spreadsheet.,So what we would do is click on Export.,For example, click on the language we wanted.,We would do one by one, one for Chinese and one for French.,And I would say I want everything.,And then, I would basically list All.,And then, I would click here on Load Match, and then go to the bottom, and Export.,And when you do that, it's going to run for a few minutes, typically.,And once you do that, you're going to be able to click on the link itself, right?,So it'll take a few minutes, but I've already done it before, in preparation for this video.,And you're going to click on the link.,Once it's finished, for example, here, you can just click here, and then you're going to get,a CSV, which is a spreadsheet, you're going to load it in Google Sheets or Excel,,and then you're going to basically click on it.,So when you go to this spreadsheet, you're going to have everything right here.,So, all you're going to do is, this is the language I've exported,,for example, French, and then, what I do is I have all of the words.,Now, anything that's empty here is not translated.,So I'm going to go one by one.,I'm going to translate with a professional that does this.,Okay?,Now, for example, just for this video, I use Google Translate,,but I do not recommend at all ever to use that.,And so, what you have here is, it's a really nice thing, is you have the translation,,the original word which you need to translate.,You only need to fill in column G, but what you have here for reference is,,This is the original language, English, this is the language you want to translate, French,,for example, and this is where it belongs.,This is related to a collection, which is in the HTML, and this is the word.,So you can know, for example, this is the collection name, and this is the collection name,,and this is the collection title, right?,And then, this is, for example, the link and meta fields, and all this stuff.,So you'll have some hint.,Sometimes, you need to have the context of what this content is for.,Some cases, you want to keep it in English, and then, most cases, you want to translate it.,So, what you're going to do is you're just going to filter all the empty ones, and in case you want,to re-review what Shopify has translated, you're going to do that.,Okay.,So, what you're going to do is, once you've finished translating everything,,you're going to click here in File, download as CSV.,You have to make it a CSV file, and you're going to go back to your Import/Export, right here, Import/Export,,and you're going to click on Import, and then you're just going to upload the file here.,And you're going to upload it and click on Submit.,And when you do that, in the tasks, you're going to be able to see that it's imported correctly, okay?,So, for example, I've had, right here, these are exports that I've run and these are imports,that I've done.,And once you do that, then all the front end, all the website itself, will be translated.,For example, here.,Okay?,So it'd be translated very simply.,Okay.,The third thing is, in some cases, if you're a bigger website, just like we've done in this one,,you want to have different domains or subdomains.,For example, I could have, for example, you know, Taiwan, you know, freedom.com, right?,Or whatever it might be, and then francefreedom21.com, etc.,And so, you want to add different domains or subdomains.,We decided to use subdomains.,So, let me show you how you do that.,Let me show you some benefits of it, and this is typically for larger sites.,Okay.,So, what you're going to do here, you're going to go to Online Store, and you're going to need to...,For every Shopify store, you need to connect your own domain.,So, how do you connect your own domain?,Typically, you buy your domain, either from Shopify or from another company.,Most people buy from other companies, but that's up to you.,You're going to click on Connect Existing Domain.,You're going to put your domain name.,For example, myf.com, whatever it is.,Okay?,And you're going to click on Next.,And once you click on Next, you're going to have to set up your DNS record.,So, for example, I have this website hosted by Cloudflare, and so, what I did right here is I set up,my A record, my CNAME, etc.,Now, for every domain and subdomain, I need to set it up to connect to Shopify.,So, for example, I decided, in this demo, to have three domains.,One is just the freedom.com, right?,freedomware21.com.,The second one is the fr, right?,For France, fr.,and the third one is tw., right?,So what I'm going to do here, I'm going to go and I'm going to show you what I did.,So, very simply, for example, I went to here and I said, "Okay, connect.",Let's say I want to add a new country.,So I'm going to do, for example, I want to add, let's say, Australia, au.freedomware21.com.,So, I'm going to click here on Okay.,Let me see, one second.,Let me figure out...,So, let me just make sure I have this.,Okay.,So let's say I want to add a new subdomain, for example, and it can be a domain, it doesn't have,to be, okay?,So I want au. and i'm going to click on Next.,Okay.,And now, it's going to give me instructions.,These instructions, I'm going to put in the description, in the YouTube description itself,,and I'm just going to add these things.,So, for me, I already know how to do it pretty quickly.,So I can just set it, because it's a CNAME, I can just set up a very simple CNAME right here,and I've already made a video for this, as well.,So I'm going to go here and I'm going to click on Save.,Once I've connected all of my country domains, I'm going to go back here.,I'm going to set it up and I'm going to click on Verify.,If I did that correctly, it's going to connect another subdomain,or another domain.,It doesn't have to be a subdomain.,Okay, perfect.,And so, once it does that, you'll see it's pending.,Typically, it takes just a few minutes.,Once it's there, then I can go there.,Now, the next thing you need to do is, once you set up all of your domains for each country,,you're going to click on Manage and you're going to connect, you're going to, first of all, put it onto...,Don't redirect that domain, which means, if someone goes to fr,,don't take them to the regular English site, keep them on the French site.,And then, you're going to specify what is the currency for that country.,For example, Euro.,Because these are the currencies we've set up in Settings.,And then, what languages apply.,You can select one or more languages that apply.,These are all the settings, the currency settings that we created,,and these are the settings for languages that we created, and you can do that,,and then you can go there.,Okay?,Once you do that, for example, France is France, which means Euro, and then these are two,languages, and then, for example, Taiwan, use the Taiwan dollar, and then the language is just,one, for example.,You can have one language or multiple languages.,So you see, for example, I've set up two languages for France.,So, if I go to my website, I go to France, my default, for example, right here,,you see, this is the...Right here.,And I can actually change, for example, I have two languages, English and French,,but still on the language itself.,So France, fr.freedomware21, the default is in French, and then, if I go to the /en,,which is the language, they'll have a separate URL for every language,,for every country.,Okay.,If you do not...,One important tip, if you only want to set up one country with multiple languages, then your domains...,Let me show you right here.,Okay, so let's go right here to...,Right here.,So my main domain, for example, is, let's say you don't want to set up different domains for all,of your languages.,So, this is my main domain.,I can click here on Manage and I can set up, for example, these languages just for U.S.,Okay?,Now, once I do that, we might have to wait a few seconds.,I'm on the English.,You can see here, I can go to the French version and it would have a separate URL for /fr.,Even if I go to a category, it would be /fr/collections/adidas, or if I go to the English one,,it would be /, you know, actually, no slash because it's the main one.,So /collection/adidas, and then, if I go to Chinese, it would be /zh-tw, which is the language,for Chinese, Traditional, collections.,So, every page would have a variation of that.,Now, another important thing about countries, which is a really good thing about doing this...,Right here, so, for example, let me...,Okay.,Another nice thing to do it is, for SEO, Shopify automatically adds hreflang tags,,which are these ones right here.,All of these tags right here.,So, these tags, it'll specify to the search engines that these pages are available in different languages,,in different countries.,For example, this is a default one, the English store, which is freedomware21.com.,This is the France, French language, France, English language URL, English language,,French language, and then Chinese, etc., and Taiwan, Chinese.,So, this shows you that, automatically, it'll tell the search engines that your website is localized,in different languages and it can find the other languages.,This helps rank your website.,So this is a really good feature that Shopify has, hreflang.,Okay.,So that's basically, this is the real walkthrough through everything.,I just want to recap very quickly.,Let me see here.,For example, Australia has completed, and if I set this up correctly for Australia, I can set up here.,Obviously, I don't have Australian currency, but I could, for example,,set up the rest of the world, and then, for example, I'd have to set up Australia dollar and etc.,So I'm going to remove this.,So, recap.,Businesses that want to sell in other countries should consider internationalization,,growing, expanding your business.,Make sure that you can support those languages, currencies, and countries correctly.,Number three is you don't have to set up a new domain, a new currency, a new language.,Do the ones you can support.,At minimum, set up the specific currencies, then try to set up...,If you can support this, try to set up the other language.,And lastly, try to set up other domains.,Big businesses want to have multiple domains for better SEO, for better organization,,unique URLs for each language, and there's a lot of things to do.,So, that's it.,Other things for recap is a lot of things you want to do in your Settings,,don't forget the currencies via Shopify payments or another payment provider that supports,multiple currencies.,Set up store languages.,Inside the payments, you can set up the currencies, make sure you use a translation app.,The one we like to use is Translate My Store.,We recommend to upgrade because of the import/export functionality.,Don't automatically translate, don't use AI, translate yourself with a professional,that is localized in that country, in that language, make sure you can support those.,And lastly, make sure your theme supports multiple languages.,If it doesn't, choose a different theme or ask your developer to expand the functionality.,And the last thing which I want to talk about is apps.,So, many Shopify stores have a ton of apps.,This is just a demo site, so we only have two apps.,When you choose your apps, if you're supporting different languages especially and different countries,,but especially languages, make sure those apps support different languages.,If not, contact their provider.,For example, go to the app provider, click on Get Support, and ask them if they support your setup.,For example, I have five countries with five languages, make sure they can support it.,If not, choose an app more correctly, or ask them or your developer to start expanding and providing,translation files for these things.,That's it.,Lastly, I appreciate you guys watching our videos.,Please subscribe and join.,And most importantly, ask questions about Shopify.,We're here to help, we're here to expand knowledge, we're here to learn from you guys,,and just share, ask questions.,Like always, we always answer as quick as we can to help.,I appreciate it, guys.,Let me know how you've executed your translations.,One more thing I almost forgot, if you want different countries, for example,,what we've set up, so you want to have, for example, let's go right here, Domains.,If you have more than one country, you have to use the Shopify plan or hire the $79 one in order,to support this, to have different languages and different domains for your countries.,Other than that, most of the other things you can do with any plan.,I appreciate it, guys.,Please subscribe.,I appreciate you guys listening.

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