Ako Marketing allows you to configure language settings for both the backend (admin interface) and the frontend (customer-facing loyalty experience).

  • Backend language controls the language displayed within the Ako Marketing app for store administrators. Changing this setting only affects your own admin experience and does not impact what customers see.
  • Frontend language controls the language displayed in the loyalty widget and customer portal. To display the correct language for customers, you must first configure your Shopify store languages and markets, then add and manage the corresponding language packs in Ako Marketing.

This guide explains how to:

  • Change the language of the Ako Marketing admin interface.
  • Configure customer-facing languages for your loyalty program.
  • Set up multilingual storefronts for both Taiwan-based and global Shopify stores.

Changing Languages in Your Backend

You can change the display language of the Ako Marketing admin interface (backend)  by updating your preferred language in Settings. This setting only affects the language you see while using Ako Marketing. It does not change the language displayed to your customers on your storefront.

Available Languages

Ako Marketing currently supports the following languages:

  • English
  • Japanese (日本語)
  • Spanish (Español)
  • Traditional Chinese (繁體中文)

How to Change Your Preferred Language

  1. From your Shopify Admin, go to Ako Marketing > Settings > Preferred Language

  1. Click the Language dropdown and select your preferred language from the list. Your Ako Marketing dashboard will be displayed in the selected language.

Notes

  • Your preferred language only changes the language of the Ako Marketing admin interface.
  • This setting does not affect the language shown to customers on your online store.

Changing Languages in Your Frontend

Scenario 1: For Taiwan Merchants

  1. In your Shopify store admin panel, tap "Settings > Language" in the bottom left corner, select "Traditional Chinese," and change it to the default language (skip this step if Traditional Chinese is already the default).
  2. Next, go to Ako Marketing  > Loyalty Program > Settings > Customer widgets > Loyalty widget > In  the Languages  ​​section, you'll see that the default language of the interface is English.
  3. Click +Add Language, select "Chinese (Traditional)," and press Save to switch to the Traditional Chinese member interface.
  4. The Traditional Chinese interface is a public version prepared by Ako Marketing. If you want to adjust the interface text, please press "Edit" on the right side of Chinese (Traditional), copy the text you want to adjust from the front-end member center, paste it into the search bar, and you can make the changes.

Scenario 2: For Global Merchants

Step 1: Add the store language you want to use with customers

  1. In your Shopify store admin panel, click "Settings > Language" in the bottom left corner.
  2. Click "Add Language", select the language you want to add to the website's front end, and press Add.



  1.  After selecting the language you want to edit, press "Translate" and choose "Translate & Adapt ". This is a translation app officially launched by Shopify, which allows you to add translations to custom pages such as product descriptions in your store.


4. After translating your custom page within Translate & Adapt, you can click "..." > "Preview" in the "Unpublished Languages" section to scan and check the content of each language version in the online store (including published and unpublished languages) to ensure it's correct. Once everything is correct, click "..." and select "Publish" to bring your edited language online.

Step 2: Add a store to Shopify Marketplace

  1. Next, go to your Shopify store admin panel > Settings > Market > click Create Market
  2. Customize the market name (only visible internally), and select which countries you want to add to this market. After selecting, click "Add Market".

 Note: Multiple countries or regions can be added to a market

Step 3: Decide which languages ​​to display in each market + set up the domain.

  1. In the newly added market, click "Language & Domain". Shopify will automatically apply the store's current default language to all markets . In other words, if your default language is English, even if a customer switches the country to Japan on the website front end, the store language they see will still be English.



    Therefore, if you want customers to see a language that can be switched according to their location, you need to further configure the domain. Please click "Manage Domain" in the upper right corner.




❶ Using subdomains will add  /{language}-{region} to the end of the store URL  to distinguish the market language, for example:
• Taiwan market: ako.com /zh-tw •
US market: ako.com / en-us

❷ Using a domain or subdomain, for example:
• Taiwan market : tw.akohub.com • North American market: us.akohub.com After setting up, when customers change the language using the language selector on the website front end, the store URL will also switch accordingly.

Step 4: Add market freight rates and activate the market

  1. Returning to the North American market settings, you will see a red label indicating "Shipping Fee Not Set," meaning you need to add shipping fees for the North American market.
  2. Click "Go to Shipping," then select "Create Region" under "General Shipping Rates." Add countries that can be shipped to in North America to your shipping region. Then, add a shipping rate specific to North America. Alternatively, you can set shipping rates in your Shopify admin panel > Settings > Shipping & Delivery.
  3. After completing the above settings, switch the North American market to "Enabled" status. If there are any incomplete settings, the enable button will be unclickable.

💡Please refer to the Shopify Help Center for more information: Managing Marketplaces , Localization, and Translation .

Step 5: Add a new language to the member system

  1. In the Languages ​​section of Ako Marketing  > Loyalty Program > Settings > Customer widgets > Loyalty widget,  you will see that the default language is English.
  2. Next, click "+ Add language" to select the language you want to add to the member interface.
    This language list includes 7 language packs: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Cantonese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

    The "Traditional Chinese" and "English" language packs already include our prepared translations; for other language interfaces, you will need to add the translations to the language pack separately.
  3. Add your translations sequentially to each field and page, and then click Save to save.
  4. To adjust the translation of other language packs, please click "Manage language" to switch languages.

❓Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Shopify has developed its own translation tool: Translate & Adapt App . While this app can translate most of the content on the website, in some cases you may still need to use it in conjunction with other third-party Shopify apps to handle multilingual and multi-currency settings and integrations.
  1. Scenario 1: If  the content cannot be translated by Translate & Adapt  (such as providing different product introductions for different markets), then manual processing or translation through other apps is required.
  2. Scenario 2: Merchants who cannot use Shopify Payments need to install a third-party app to support multi-currency conversion. These multi-currency apps usually also provide translation functions.
  1. If your store needs to use a third-party translation app, please be sure to choose an app that supports "not automatically translating specific sections," otherwise it may overwrite the member interface you translated in "Step 5: Adding Membership System Language."

    For example, the Shopify app ETranslate offers three translation modes:
    1) Basic mode: The entire website uses machine translation, without human editing.
    2) Advanced mode: The content to be translated can be partially machine-translated and partially combined with human translation.
    3) Locked mode: Does not use ETranslate's machine translation function, only Shopify Translate & Adapt's translation

    . Of these three modes, ETranslate's Basic mode may cause conflicts with the membership system; Advanced mode is the most suitable option. When choosing a third-party translation app, please check if the developer also supports features like Advanced mode.
  2. If you are a merchant located in Taiwan and use a third-party app to set up multi-currency conversion, please note that the multi-currency conversion function in Taiwan currently only supports "displaying product prices in the exchange rate of the customer's location". When the customer actually checks out, the transaction will still be settled and paid in "New Taiwan Dollars".