How to sell in several languages: a checklist for your online store

Many brands sell to customers who read different languages. Yet many online stores still treat every language but the first as an afterthought: a rough translation, prices in the wrong format, menus left in English. The customer feels the store wasn’t made for them, and leaves.

Here are 10 points for a store that feels at home in every language, for your customers, for search engines and for AI shopping assistants.

Writing

1. Write for each language. Don’t just translate.

A word-for-word translation loses the voice of your brand. Use translation as a first draft, then have someone who knows your customers read every page: product titles, descriptions, buttons and emails. Keep the same tone everywhere: if you’re warm and simple in one language, be warm and simple in all of them.

2. Describe the product with facts

Facts travel better than adjectives: the material, the exact sizes, how and where it’s made, how to care for it, and the delivery time. “Silk caftan, hand-embroidered, sizes 36 to 46, delivered in 5–7 days” works in every language. “A timeless, unique design” says nothing in any of them.

3. Use the words your customers search for

The same product has different names in different countries, and customers spell it in different ways. Find the terms people actually type in each language, and use them naturally in your titles and descriptions, without stuffing.

Being found

4. Give each language its own address

Give each language its own address (for example /fr or /de), and tell search engines how the versions relate with hreflang tags. Customers who search in French then find your French pages, and customers who search in German find your German ones. Don’t switch the language silently based on the visitor’s location. Let them choose, and remember their choice.

5. Structured data in the page’s language

Structured data is the hidden summary machines read: the product’s name, price, currency, availability, delivery and returns. Write it in the language of the page. That way, AI shopping assistants understand your product when a customer asks them in that language. (Read our guide to AI shopping assistants.)

Selling

6. Prices, currencies and formats

Show prices in a clear currency, and in the same format on every page. Numbers, dates and decimal marks are written differently from one country to the next (€1,250.00 in one place, 1 250,00 € in another), so follow your customers’ habits. Say whether tax and delivery are included.

7. Delivery and returns, in numbers

List the countries you deliver to, the time in days, the cost and the return window, in every language. These are the first questions customers ask, and the first facts AI assistants look for.

8. Legal pages and support in every language

Your terms, privacy policy and returns policy should be available in each language you sell in. In some countries this is a legal requirement for selling to consumers, so check the rules for the countries you sell to with a lawyer. Make it clear how to contact you, and in which languages you answer.

9. Emails in the customer’s language

Send each customer their order confirmation, shipping update and newsletter in the language they chose on your store. A confirmation in the wrong language is the moment many customers start to worry.

10. Test on a phone, in every language

Most customers shop on their phone. Walk through the whole journey in each language: home page, product, basket, checkout and the confirmation email. Look for a word left in another language, a button cut short, or a date in the wrong format. Each one costs trust.

How OumsAI helps

• Our AI works in most languages. Write a product once, and the AI store manager translates it. You check before it goes live.
• OumsAI is available in several languages, for your store and its emails.
• One editor for every language, with a dot where a text is still missing.
• A separate address for each language, with hreflang, structured data and an llms.txt file for search engines and AI assistants.

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Questions

Can I just translate my current store?

Translation is a good start, but it isn’t enough. Each version needs texts written for its customers, the right formats and its own address.

Should I use automatic translation?

Use it for a first draft, then check. On OumsAI, the AI translates and you approve before anything goes live.

How many languages should I start with?

Start with the languages your customers already write to you in. One version done well is better than three done badly.

Will each language appear in Google?

It can, if each one has its own address, hreflang tags and real content. Nobody can guarantee a ranking, but these are the foundations.