Shopify beefs up cross-border commerce with translation tools

E-commerce platform Shopify is launching Shopify Translate & Adapt designed to improve cross-border commerce for its users and accelerate their global expansion.

For instance, by translating merchant stores into different languages with both manual and machine translations. The tools can also adapt custom content for each market.

For example:

• Merchants can account for variations in dialects and languages, like changing “pants” to “trousers” when switching from American to British English.
• They can add or remove lines from product descriptions to better reflect how individual products might be used or referenced in different countries.
• They might adapt content in an FAQ or contact page to better route customer inquiries.

This product update builds on its global commerce hub, Shopify Markets, which has helped 175,000 merchants across the world launch their international businesses.

To support the launch, Shopify also revealed internal data highlighting that UK merchants are now selling to an average of 8 international markets on Shopify.

This is higher for UK merchants using Shopify Markets who sell to an average of 17 international markets. 36.52% of all traffic to Shopify stores in the UK is driven by international buyers, with 23.42% of total sales generated from outside the UK.

Shimona Mehta, Shopify’s Managing Director, EMEA, said: “Expanding to new markets without a localised consumer experience means you’re leaving untapped potential on the table.

Shopify Translate & Adapt overhauls how Shopify merchants can build high-touch storefronts for each market, all from a single store and platform, and we think it’ll be a game changer for increasing consumer empathy and conversion.”

“Expanding to new markets without a localised consumer experience means you’re leaving untapped potential on the table,” said Shimona Mehta, Managing Director, EMEA, at Shopify. “Shopify Translate & Adapt overhauls how Shopify merchants can build high-touch storefronts for each market, all from a single store and platform, and we think it’ll be a game changer for increasing consumer empathy and conversion.”

Shopify Translate & Adapt is available to all merchants globally starting today.