How to offer an Arabic checkout on Shopify

To offer an Arabic checkout, add Arabic as a language in Settings > Languages, translate your store, publish the language, and give shoppers a way to reach it. Shopify shows the checkout in the same language the shopper uses to browse your store, so an Arabic storefront leads to an Arabic checkout. One thing to plan for: Arabic is not on Shopify's list of languages that come with ready-made checkout translations. Check every checkout screen in Arabic and fill the gaps before you publish.

What do shoppers see when your store has Arabic?

Once Arabic is published and translated:

• The storefront and checkout appear in Arabic for shoppers who choose it, or who are sent to it automatically by their location and browser language.
• Order emails go out in the language the shopper ordered in, as long as you have translations for those emails.
• Arabic pages get their own web addresses. If your domain is example.com, Shopify adds the language code, so Arabic pages sit under example.com/ar.

Text you typed yourself, such as shipping rate names, and text that comes from apps are easy to miss. Check them in Arabic too.

Step 1: Check that your theme supports Arabic and right-to-left text

Arabic reads right to left, so the theme has to flip its layout. Shopify says the latest versions of its Horizon family of themes support right-to-left languages such as Arabic. For any other theme, ask the developer to confirm right-to-left support before you start. Shopify's Theme Store can be filtered by Features > Right-to-left.

Your theme also needs a language selector so shoppers can switch. Most Shopify themes include one that you turn on in the theme settings.

Step 2: Add Arabic as a store language

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages.
2. Click Add language.
3. Select Arabic from the menu, then click Next.
4. Turn on each domain where Arabic should be available, then click Done.

Adding a language doesn't show it to shoppers yet. That happens when you publish it in Step 4. Stores on the Basic, Grow, Shopify and Advanced plans can have up to 20 languages, and Shopify Plus stores up to 30, so adding Arabic next to English won't hit a limit.

Step 3: Translate your store, including the checkout

Shopify's own app for this is Translate & Adapt. You can type translations yourself or use Shopify's automatic translations. Automatic translation into Arabic has been available in Translate & Adapt since March 27, 2024. You can also import translations from a CSV file or use a compatible translation app.

Work through the content in this order, because the checkout and order emails are where a half-translated store hurts most:

1. Checkout text. Shopify's checkout has ready-made translations for 33 languages, and Arabic is not one of them. Shopify's help says that if the language you want isn't available, you can create the translations yourself, and points to a CSV import or a translation app for this. Whichever tool you use, find the checkout text in it and fill it in.
2. Email notifications. Go to Settings > Notifications, select a notification, click Localize, add the Arabic text and save. Start with the order confirmation.
3. Products, collections, pages and policies. Your product titles and descriptions, plus your shipping and return policies.
4. Theme text and menus. Buttons, the header and footer menus, and announcement bars.

A few things can't be translated. Product tags stay in your default language, and the word "products" in product URLs stays as it is.

If you later change the checkout wording in your default language (in Settings > Checkout, under Checkout language), update the Arabic translation at the same time. Shopify reminds you to keep translations in step with the default text.

Step 4: Publish Arabic

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Languages.
2. In the languages table, click the … icon next to Arabic.
3. Click Publish.

If Shopify asks you to confirm because there are no translations yet, stop and go back to Step 3. Shoppers who choose an untranslated language see your default text, which looks broken on a page that is supposed to be in Arabic.

Step 5: Decide which markets get Arabic, and on which web address

In Shopify, languages are assigned to domains, and each market uses a domain. A language assigned to a domain is available in every market that uses that domain. If you want different languages in different markets (for example Arabic and English for Saudi Arabia, English only for another market), you need international domains, which you set up for each market in Markets.

Shopify redirects shoppers to the domain and language that match their location, using their IP address and browser language. A shopper who picks a language in the selector keeps that choice on later visits. Shopify also adds hreflang tags and includes every published language in your sitemap, which helps search engines find the Arabic version of each page.

If you sell to several GCC countries, read different COD rules per GCC market as well, because the market setup you choose here also shapes your payment rules.

Step 6: Test an Arabic checkout before your shoppers do

Shopify's help pages say little about how the checkout handles right-to-left text, so check it yourself:

1. Switch the storefront to Arabic, add a product to the cart and go to checkout. Do it on a phone as well as a computer.
2. Look for English words left behind: field labels, buttons, shipping method names and payment method names.
3. Submit the form with a field empty to see the error messages. These are easy to miss.
4. Check that text, prices and the phone and address fields line up from the right.
5. Place a test order and read the Arabic order confirmation email.

To test payment options for a particular customer, use the steps in how to test checkout payment rules with draft orders.

What should Cash on Delivery be called on the Arabic checkout?

Look closely at the payment step. If your cash on delivery option still shows an English name on the Arabic checkout, it stands out at the moment the shopper decides how to pay. A common Arabic wording is «الدفع عند الاستلام» ("payment on receipt"). See what to call Cash on Delivery in Arabic for the options.

A single manual payment method has one name for every shopper. To show an Arabic name on the Arabic checkout and an English name everywhere else, you need a payment customization that renames the method by checkout language. Khaleeji COD does this: Arabic checkouts see «الدفع عند الاستلام» and everyone else sees "Cash on Delivery". For the other ways to change the name, read how to rename Cash on Delivery at Shopify checkout.