How to Translate Product Options and Calculators on Shopify

Illustration of one curtain calculator in English, French and German side by side, with translated width and drop labels and add to cart buttons, and a receipt slip reading Largeur: 120 cm

Shopify can translate your product page into French. The calculator on that page is a separate job.

Shopify's own translation tools cover your products, collections and pages. The options, prices and buttons inside a product calculator are rendered by the options app, so they're translated in that app.

In Appify Custom Product Options, you add each language to the calculator and AI fills in every missing string in one pass. You review the words that matter, and the shopper's Shopify locale picks the language. The translation reaches the cart line, the order and the Product Designer too.

Every part of the calculator, and where it's translated

What the shopper reads Where you translate it
Option labels, choices and descriptions All translations, or the translate control beside each label
Measurement labels and units The translate control beside each dimension label and unit
Price summary lines and the price label The translate icon beside each summary field
Buttons and error messages Filled in when you add the language, where a built-in version exists
Room map words (Wall, Close, Perimeter) Already filled in for each language
Product Designer tools, buttons and review wording All translations, plus the designer's own Translations tab
Option names and values on the cart line and order Cart properties, with one setting turned on

Every one of these strings also appears in a single All translations table, under Optional Features, then Languages, in the calculator editor.

Fill it in, then fix the words that matter

Add a language from Shopify's list of locales, including regional ones like Canadian French. Click Translate all missing and AI fills every empty string in every language you've added.

Then open All translations and search for your trade terms and material names. Those are the words a shopper notices first when they're wrong.

When you change the English

Your default language is the source. Change a label's wording there, click AI generate on that row, and the other languages follow the new wording.

Want a whole language redone? Run AI translate all missing for that language with Overwrite existing translations ticked.

When you add options later

Run Translate all missing again. Translations you already have are kept, so your reviewed wording stays as you left it. The completeness percentage on each language shows whether anything is still open.

Translation is part of every edit, not a project you redo. Change the English, regenerate that row. Add an option, fill the gap. Nothing you've already reviewed gets thrown away.

Most options apps have no designer to translate

If your calculator opens the Product Designer, its text translates in two groups.

  • The editor's own tools come with pre-translated versions for supported languages when you add the language.
  • Your labels each get a translation field. Save, Done, comment, front and back labels, and the design review wording sit on the designer's Translations tab. Upload panel text has a translate icon beside each field.

The Product Designer translation guide lists where each one lives.

Keep the cart line in the shopper's language

The shopper chose "Largeur" on the page. Without one setting, the cart line says "Width".

In Cart properties, turn on Send cart options in the customer's language, or ask Chat with AI to turn it on. Option names and chosen values on the cart, checkout, order and packing slip then follow the shopper's language.

On the app's Orders page, staff switch any order between the customer's language and your default language for fulfillment.

The shopper reads French on the packing slip. Your workshop reads English on the same order.

Rules that read your Shopify product options keep matching too. A rule written as Color is Red still matches when the storefront shows Couleur and Rouge.

Test it the way a shopper will

  • Switch the storefront language and open the product. Labels, choices, the price summary and the add to cart button should all change.
  • Open the designer, if the product has one, and save a test design.
  • Place a test order, check the cart line, then open the order on the app's Orders page in both languages.

Selling in a new currency too? Our guide to selling custom products in multiple languages and currencies covers how Shopify Markets prices convert. To see how other apps handle both, read our roundup of product options apps with Markets and multi-language support.

FAQ

Does Shopify Translate & Adapt translate my product options?

It translates your products, collections and pages. Options rendered by an app are translated in that app. In Appify Custom Product Options, that's the Languages section of each calculator.

Can I translate measurement units, not just labels?

Yes. Each dimension's label and unit has its own translate control.

Does the customer have to pick a language in the calculator?

No. The calculator follows the shopper's Shopify locale, so there's no extra language picker to add.

Translated from the first option to the packing slip.

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