Localization

Shoplazza merchants run their stores in different languages. An app that greets a Chinese-speaking merchant with an English-only UI feels harder to trust and harder to use. This guide shows how to detect the merchant's language and localize your app.

Detect the merchant's language

You don't need to ask the merchant — Shoplazza tells you:

• Embedded apps: the session token payload includes a locale field with the language and region of the current user, for example zh-CN. Read it from the verified token on every request, so your app follows the user immediately when they switch languages.
• Backend services: read the store's primary_locale from the Shop API when you need a language outside of a user session — for example when rendering emails or scheduled reports.

Translate your app UI

Structure your app for translation from the start:

• Keep UI strings in locale resource files (the standard mechanism of i18n libraries such as i18next or your framework's built-in support) instead of hardcoding them in components.
• Select the locale from the session token's locale field, and fall back to a default language (typically English) for locales you don't support yet.
• Don't translate merchant data — product titles, order notes, and other store content belong to the merchant and should be displayed as stored.
• Format dates, times, numbers, and currency with locale-aware APIs such as Intl instead of hand-built formatting.

Localize your app listing

The Shoplazza App Store supports listings in English and Chinese. Provide both: the listing is the first thing a merchant reads, and a listing in the merchant's own language converts better. Keep the two versions in sync when you update screenshots, feature lists, or pricing descriptions — see the app listing requirements.