Update Your Store: Installing WooCommerce Language Packs

Expanding your WooCommerce store into international markets can feel like navigating a maze with no exits. Store owners have to grapple with the complexities of language barriers, cultural nuances, and the daunting task of reaching a global audience.

While WooCommerce offers native language packs as a starting point, the process of installing these packs can be unmanageable and time-consuming. Moreover, these solutions can’t deliver the quality multilingual experience that your target audience expects. However, thanks to a new partnership with Weglot, translating your WooCommerce site has just got a whole lot easier.

Here we’ll break down WooCommerce language pack installation into steps, outlining the different options developers can use to achieve multilingual content. We’ll also see why Weglot offers a simple solution by integrating directly with WooCommerce itself.

How to Change the Language on Your WooCommerce Site

First up, if you’re targeting a single region, you can change your site’s language through the standard WordPress settings:

1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel.
2. Go to Settings > General.
3. Find the Site Language dropdown menu and choose your preferred language from the list.
4. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
5. Go to Dashboard > Updates.
6. Scroll down to the Translations section and click on Update Translations to download any necessary files for your selected language.

This action will update the language for your dashboard, provided that the corresponding language pack is available. However, on the front end, this only translates the key content components from WooCommerce, such as your cart pages, checkout, and account pages. For custom content—such as product descriptions and other text elements—you’ll need to make manual translations or use a dedicated plugin to automate the process.

If you’d like to keep your store in one language while using a different one in your dashboard, take the following steps:

1. Go to Users > Profile.
2. Use the Language dropdown menu to select a different language for your dashboard, leaving the front end unchanged.

Those looking to serve multiple languages will of course need to take a different route! Below we’ll detail how to download WooCommerce’ native language packs and then demonstrate how Weglot’s new partnership with WooCommerce can automate the process.

Step-by-Step Guide: Installing WooCommerce Language Packs

As we mentioned, installing native WooCommerce language packs manually is a complex endeavor. While it offers the potential for a tailored multilingual experience, it often requires coding and significant custom development work that is easier left to a WordPress translation plugin.

For most site administrators and developers, this approach is not recommended due to the ongoing maintenance involved. However, for developers that want to, there are three approaches to consider, each with its own set of challenges:

Approach 1: Modifying Your Theme and Templates to Handle Multilingual Content Manually

One way to achieve multilingual content is by manually modifying your theme and templates. This involves duplicating pages, posts, and products in the second language.

You’ll also need to establish a URL structure that differentiates languages – such as adding /es/ for Spanish content – and create a custom language selector in your site’s header or navigation menu that links to the corresponding pages.

Additionally, you can utilize WordPress localization functions like __() and _e() to manage translatable strings in your theme. However, this approach has considerable downsides:

• It’s highly time-consuming and prone to errors.
• Managing duplicated content becomes increasingly difficult as your site grows.
• There is no dynamic content translation – every update must be made manually, which can lead to inconsistencies.

Approach 2: Using Gettext for Static Strings

Gettext is a widely used internationalization and localization system that manages the translation of static text strings within themes, plugins, and WordPress itself.

To implement this approach, you’ll need to download language files (e.g. Spanish .mo and .po files) for WordPress and WooCommerce. Ensure that your theme and WooCommerce load the correct text domain for translations by using localization functions like __() and _e().

You'll also need to set up a mechanism to switch the site’s locale based on user selection. You can use the switch_to_locale() function provided by WordPress to change the locale at runtime based on user input.

However, this method has its limitations. It does not handle dynamic content like posts, pages, or products. You would need to manually create and manage translations for dynamic content. Additionally, switching locales without a plugin can become complex and cumbersome, especially when managing multiple languages and ensuring compatibility across different parts of the site.

For smoother multilingual support, including dynamic content translation, consider using an established multilingual plugin like Weglot.

Approach 3: Setting up WordPress Multisite

Another option is to convert your WordPress installation into a multisite network. This setup allows you to create separate sites for each language within the network while using shared themes and plugins for consistency. You’ll also need to manually link corresponding pages between the sites.

While creating a multilingual WooCommerce store without a plugin is feasible, it involves significant manual effort and technical challenges. For most users, this method is not practical due to the complexity involved in managing multiple sites.

So, while these manual approaches are possible, they are incredibly technical. For a scalable and codeless solution, using a dedicated multilingual plugin is highly recommended – the process is user-friendly and improves the overall user experience. We’ll take a closer look at this later on!

Limitations of Native Language Packs for Multilingual Stores

While WooCommerce’s native language packs provide a basic solution for multilingual stores, their limitations can seriously hinder effective international expansion:

• Single language constraints: Native packs only support one language at a time, making it challenging to serve a diverse customer base.
• Incomplete translations: Many language packs contain gaps, resulting in a mix of translated and untranslated content. This inconsistency can confuse customers and negatively impact their shopping experience.
• Static content only: While interface elements are translated, dynamic content like product names, descriptions, and customer reviews often remain in the original language, limiting the effectiveness of the multilingual experience.
• Limited SEO benefits: Native packs lack built-in multilingual SEO features, which can damage visibility in international markets and reduce potential traffic.
• Manual maintenance: Store owners must manually update language packs whenever WooCommerce updates occur, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
• No translation workflow: The absence of a built-in system for managing or collaborating on translations makes it difficult for teams to maintain consistent messaging across languages.

Thankfully, there’s a much better alternative, and it comes in the form of our very own translation plugin – Weglot.

Enhancing Your Global Reach with Weglot and WooCommerce

Weglot is now fully integrated into the WooCommerce plugin making translating your site easy. Simply add Weglot through the WooCommerce Extensions Marketplace and you’ll be able to instantly translate your site into over 110 languages.

Weglot is a comprehensive translation plugin for multilingual ecommerce, addressing the common challenges associated with traditional WooCommerce language packs. While native language packs provide a basic framework for translation, they often fall short in functionality and flexibility, limiting your global reach.

Weglot offers several key features:

• Automatic content detection and translation: Weglot uses machine translation to automatically detect and translate content, ensuring that your store can cater to a diverse audience without manual input.

• Visual Editor: The platform includes a Visual Editor that allows for easy, contextual refinement of translations, enabling store owners to make adjustments directly on the site.

• Full store translation: Unlike static language packs, Weglot provides full store translation of dynamic content, including user-generated content like reviews and comments, ensuring that all aspects of your store are consistently localized, no matter what 3rd-party plugins you’ve installed.
• Built-in translation management tools: Weglot facilitates team collaboration with its translation management features, as well as the ability to order professional translators directly through your Weglot Dashboard, making it easier to maintain consistency across languages.
• Advanced SEO optimization: Weglot enhances your store’s visibility with proper language URL structures (subdomains or subdirectories), automatic hreflang tag implementation, and metadata translation, all of which are must-haves for effective search engine optimization.

• Language switcher: A customizable language switcher gives users the choice to navigate easily between languages, adding to the user experience.

By simplifying the translation process, Weglot removes the need for multiple plugins or extensive development work. It automatically detects and translates all content on your WooCommerce store—including product descriptions, categories, checkout pages, and emails—keeping pace with the dynamic nature of ecommerce.

The potential for increased global reach and sales is significant. According to CSA Research, 65% of consumers prefer to read content in their native language, and 40% won’t buy products listed in other languages. Any brand failing to translate and localize its consumer information is missing out on some serious sales opportunities.

Elevate Your International Ecommerce Presence with Weglot

With its simple WooCommerce integration, Weglot offers automatic content detection and translation, subdirectory/subdomain language management, and built-in SEO optimization – all designed to boost your international reach.

Get started with Weglot’s 10-day free trial and instantly translate your WooCommerce store!