How to Migrate a Shopify Store With Multiple Languages
A multilingual Shopify migration moves your store and all its translated content, such as product names, descriptions, collections, pages and blog posts in each language, onto Shopify. The usual approach is to set up your languages in Shopify first, migrate your default-language data, then bring in translations with a migration service that supports multiple languages, Shopify’s translation CSV import or a translation app.
Multilingual moves need more planning than single-language ones, because translated content and language-specific URLs carry both customer experience and search traffic. Getting the structure right before migrating saves you from rebuilding translations or losing rankings in your other languages.
How Shopify Handles Multiple Languages
Shopify runs multiple languages inside a single store. You add languages under Settings > Languages, translate your content and publish each language when it’s ready, and each published language gets its own URLs.
Translations can come from Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app, which supports manual and AI translation, from CSV files or from compatible third-party translation apps. When a translation is missing, the store falls back to your default language, and once a language is published, checkout and email notifications also appear in the customer’s language.
This structure differs from some platforms. Magento, for example, often uses separate store views per language, while Shopify keeps one catalog with translated fields, and Shopify Markets lets you choose which languages each market uses.
How to Migrate a Multilingual Store to Shopify
Most multilingual migrations combine a data migration for the default language with a separate method for translations. These are the main options:
| Method | How it works | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Migration service with multilingual support | Moves default-language data and translations from the source platform | Stores with many translated products and pages | Often handled as a custom project, so check scope and price |
| Shopify translation CSV import | Export Shopify’s translation file, fill in translated content and import it | Bringing exported translations into Shopify in bulk | Only works for secondary languages, and some fields such as tags can’t be translated |
| Translation apps | Manage or generate translations inside Shopify | Stores rebuilding or extending translations after migration | Machine translation still needs review by native speakers |
| Manual translation | Enter or paste translations in the admin | A few languages with small catalogs | Slow and error-prone at scale |
Migration services vary in what they can move. Cart2Cart, for example, can migrate content such as product descriptions, product attributes and CMS pages in multiple languages, while LitExtension offers multilingual migration of products, categories, CMS pages and blogs through its customized migration service after reviewing your source store’s language setup.
Multilingual Shopify Migration Step by Step
The order matters, because translations attach to products, collections and pages that must already exist in Shopify. Follow these steps for a smoother move:
- Audit your languages and content. List every language you sell in and which content is translated, including products, collections, pages, blog posts, metadata and theme text.
- Decide on your structure. Choose whether one store with multiple languages fits, or whether separate stores make more sense for very different catalogs or brands.
- Set up languages and markets in Shopify. Add your languages and assign them to markets before migrating, so translations have somewhere to go.
- Migrate default-language data. Move products, customers, orders and content in your main language first.
- Migrate translations. Use your migration service’s multilingual option, or export Shopify’s translation CSV, add the translated content and import it.
- Translate the theme and remaining content. Check theme text, navigation, notifications and app content that a data migration may not cover.
- Set up redirects for every language. Map old URLs in each language to their new Shopify equivalents.
- Test each language. Check the language selector, product pages, collections, search, checkout and emails in every published language.
- Publish languages and review. Publish each language once it’s complete, and have native speakers review key pages.
Using Shopify’s translation CSV
Shopify’s translation CSV is useful for bringing large amounts of translated content into a store. Export it from Settings > Languages, choosing a language and whether you want all content, metafields, outdated or untranslated content, and Shopify emails you the file.
The file lists each resource with its type, ID, field, locale, market, default content and a translated content column. Add translations only in the translated content column, keep the other columns unchanged and save the file with comma delimiters, since HTML containing semicolons can break columns in some spreadsheets.
Import the file from the same page and choose whether to overwrite existing translations. The import only applies to secondary languages, and Shopify reports any errors or skipped content so you can fix and re-import them.
Protecting Multilingual SEO
Each language version of your store has its own rankings, so a multilingual migration has several sets of URLs to protect. Treat every language as its own migration when planning SEO.
- Map URLs per language. Build a redirect map for each language, pointing each old translated URL to its new equivalent rather than to the default-language page.
- Carry over translated metadata. Migrate translated meta titles, meta descriptions and image alt text, not just product descriptions.
- Check language signals. Confirm your theme outputs language tags such as hreflang correctly for each published language.
- Plan handles carefully. Shopify notes that automatic redirects for product handle changes aren’t supported for language-specific URLs, so settle translated handles before launch.
- Submit sitemaps and monitor. Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console and check indexing and traffic for each language after launch.
Common Challenges and How to Handle Them
Multilingual migrations run into a predictable set of issues. Planning for them early keeps the project on schedule:
| Challenge | How to handle it |
|---|---|
| Different language structures, such as separate store views per language | Map each store view to a Shopify language and market before migrating |
| Missing translations falling back to the default language | Export untranslated content from Shopify and fill gaps before publishing |
| Fields that can’t be translated, such as tags | Plan filters and collections so they don’t depend on translated tags |
| Theme and app text not included in data migration | Translate theme content and check each app’s language support |
| Machine translation quality | Have native speakers review product pages, checkout and key landing pages |
| Language-specific URLs and redirects | Build and test a redirect map for every language |
Conclusion
A multilingual Shopify migration works best when languages are set up first, default-language data moves next and translations follow through a capable migration service, Shopify’s translation CSV or a translation app. Protecting each language’s URLs and testing every published language before launch keeps your international customers and search traffic intact. We hope this guide helps you plan a smooth multilingual Shopify migration.
