How to Make a Shopware Website Multilingual

Published On - May 27, 2025

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Reaching a global audience is a strategic goal for many eCommerce businesses. Thankfully, platforms like Shopware make this not only possible but relatively straightforward. Creating a multilingual Shopware website ensures that your store can cater to users from different regions, offering content in their native languages while maintaining professionalism and user-friendly navigation. In this article, we’ll explore the detailed steps and recommended practices for making your Shopware website multilingual.

1. Understanding Shopware’s Language Feature

Shopware supports multilingual capabilities out of the box. This is achieved mainly through the use of language packs and sales channel configurations. Before beginning the process, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of how Shopware separates its language settings across the administration interface and the storefront.

Shopware manages multiple languages via locales and language entities. A locale handles regional-specific formatting such as date and number formats, while a language entity links localized content with a specific sales channel.

2. Installing Language Packs

To make your website available in multiple languages, the first step is installing the necessary language packs. These can be found in the Shopware Store or directly installed via the admin interface.

  1. Log into your Shopware Admin Panel.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Shop > Languages.
  3. Click on Add Language and choose from available language packs in the Shopware Store.

Installing a language pack will allow you to translate backend settings and certain system-generated content. However, you’ll still need to manually translate custom storefront content, like product descriptions and CMS pages.

3. Configuring Languages in Sales Channels

Once you’ve added the required languages, you’ll need to associate them with one or more sales channels. Sales channels are the foundation of your storefront and determine how and where your content is delivered to visitors.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Shop > Sales Channels.
  2. Select the sales channel you want to modify.
  3. Under the General tab, assign the appropriate languages to the channel.
  4. Configure corresponding domain names or add language paths like /en or /de to differentiate between locales.

This step ensures that when a visitor accesses a specific domain or URL path, they are served the site in their intended language.

4. Translating Storefront Content

Now that your language infrastructure is in place, it’s time to move on to content translation. Shopware enables language-specific content through its admin panels.

To translate a product:

  1. Go to Catalogue > Products.
  2. Select a product and change the language in the dropdown menu at the top right of the screen.
  3. Enter the translated data such as product name, description, and SEO URL.

This process applies to CMS pages, categories, and custom forms as well. Shopware provides a reliable and user-friendly way to manage translations without the need for technical expertise.

5. Managing Email Templates and System Messages

Don’t forget about customer-facing communication such as order confirmations, shipping notifications, and newsletters. These messages also need proper localization.

To translate email templates:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Email Templates.
  2. Select a template group and add content translations for each language you support.

The same goes for validation messages and other system alerts. These can be edited via snippets found under Settings > Snippets. Ensure that each snippet has values defined for all active languages.

6. SEO and Best Practices

A well-localized website can significantly boost your SEO performance in international markets. Shopware allows you to configure SEO URLs and meta data per language, enhancing visibility on local search engines.

  • Use consistent and localized keywords for each language version of your store.
  • Set hreflang tags in your website header to indicate language and regional targeting to search engines.
  • Ensure your sitemap includes all language versions of each page.

These additional optimizations help search engines understand your multilingual structure, avoiding duplicate content issues and improving indexing.

Final Thoughts

Setting up a multilingual Shopware website is a comprehensive but achievable task. By installing language packs, configuring sales channels correctly, and translating storefront content, you can deliver a consistent and localized experience to users around the world. Coupled with proper SEO practices and snippet translations, your Shopware store will be well-equipped to compete globally.

As always, test thoroughly to ensure functionality and language consistency across all elements before launching in new markets.