How to translate a PrestaShop e-commerce

For many businesses that had never thought of having an online shop, opening an e-commerce can be a real turning point. Thanks to the tools made available by the web, an e-commerce can be implemented quickly and easily, expanding the customer base and creating a whole range of new opportunities compared to traditional channels.

Choosing a CMS (content management system) is essential to start selling online. To get off on the right foot, you need to be clear about your needs and understand the pros and cons of the various platforms available.

Prestashop is a free platform available under an open software licence and is designed to start from scratch to create an e-commerce store. What does open-source mean? It means that you can download the platform free of charge, install it and customise it as you wish. Then you can simply download the file from the official website and start creating your online shop in just a few clicks.

But probably you may be interested in internationalising your e-commerce, so you can start selling worldwide. The next question will be: How do you translate your e-commerce PrestaShop?

How do you translate your e-commerce PrestaShop?

You started with an English version of PrestaShop, and you don't know how to translate it into French (or whatever language you want)?

This tutorial will show you how to add a new language to your shop. I guess you already know how to create a PrestaShop shop.

How to install a language manually

The manual process can be a bit long, but it is still effective. The first thing you need to do is to go to "Location > Language" from your dashboard.

Usually, you will see the list of languages that have been installed there. In my version of PrestaShop, which is in English, only the 'English' language is displayed. Click on the link "Add new language".

You will access a new interface where you will have to save some information about the language you prefer. If it is for the French language, you need to fill in the information as follows:

• Fill in French for the field "Name"
• Fill in " fr For the ISO code field ".
• Fill in " en_us For the language code field ".

You will notice that new information has been added below. Click on the Download link to download the translation package.

After downloading the package, you must go to the menu "Localisation> Translations" To send the file.

On this page, go to "Import a language package manually". Click on Add file and select the downloaded file. When you have finished, click on "Import".

Make sure that you have this type of notification. Otherwise, an error has undoubtedly occurred.

You have now installed a new language in your PrestaShop installation.

How to easily install/update a language

It's just as simple. All you need in the wizard "Localisation> Translations" is to access the section "Add/Update a language". In the search field, type the word "Français" You will see a result suggestion. Click on it and then on the "Add or update a language" button.

How to activate a language on PrestaShop

What we did before was to install a language without activating it. To activate a language, you must go to "Localisation> Localisation".

In the section "Configuration", choose the language you want to enable by default. You can also change the default country and the default country.

Then go back to "Localisation> Translations" and disable the languages you do not want to use.

You can now see that your PrestaShop shop is in French.

What's next?

Now, don't even think for a second that you can use an automatic translation for your e-commerce. It is cheap for sure, but it’s hurting your business image. For that reason, you have to use professional translators for the task, and we at Hero Translate can be your winning partner on your journey to internationalisation.

You just have to share with us the translation file that we will fill with the translation of your target language. As soon as you receive our translation, you can import it on PrestaShop and sell worldwide. As simple as that!

Conclusion

PrestaShop is probably one of the best solutions for those who want to revamp their business by putting it on the Internet. It’s not difficult to translate it into as many languages as you want but to do it, you need the right partner at your side, and we at Hero Translate can be that partner you are searching for!.

Get an Instant Quote or Contact Us and take advantage of a 10% discount on your first order and become part of the 10.000+ companies and professionals that used Hero Translate to exploit international markets successfully!