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How Does Shopify Choose a Customer's Email Language?

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Manfred

Manfred

Last updated on Aug 22, 2026

Shopify, not Smart Emails, chooses the locale used when a notification is sent. Smart Emails supplies the translated body_html that Shopify can select.

What Shopify uses

Depending on the notification and checkout flow, Shopify can use the customer's recorded locale or the language of the storefront and checkout where the customer completed the action.

For Shopify to send the localized body:

  • the locale must be enabled and published in the shop
  • the relevant primary notification must be installed
  • a body_html translation must exist for that locale and notification

When these conditions are met, Shopify chooses the matching localized body. If a matching translation is unavailable, Shopify can fall back to the shop's primary language.

Changing the Smart Emails interface language

The interface language switch changes the Smart Emails controls and Chatbot interface. It does not change a customer's Shopify locale and does not determine the language of an outgoing notification.

Testing language selection

Use a test customer or checkout with the desired storefront language and trigger the real Shopify notification. A Smart Emails preview email checks the design but does not reproduce every customer-locale decision made by Shopify.

|| A customer can interact with the store in more than one language. Shopify's locale stored for the relevant event determines which installed translation it selects.