Shopify Translate & Adapt: Adapt Content by Market

The problem

A merchant asked about this on the Shopify Community, and it is one of the most confusing parts of selling in more than one country.

They wanted different text for different markets. In their case, one message for Switzerland and a different one for the rest of Europe. Shopify's own documentation says the Translate & Adapt app supports market-specific content, not just language translation. So they opened the app and went looking for it.

But the "Localized content" dropdown only listed their five languages. No markets appeared at all.

The Shopify Translate and Adapt Localized content dropdown listing only languages, not markets

They ran the Horizon theme on the Basic plan, with three active markets. They had three questions. How do you reach per-market adaptation? Does a country need its own market? Is this even on the Basic plan?

I reproduced the whole thing on a test store. The markets are not missing. They are one level deeper, and once you see where, it takes a minute.

Why the markets are not in that dropdown

Let me explain the mechanism, because it is the part every quick answer skips.

Translate & Adapt does two different jobs, and they live in two different places.

The first job is translation. You take your content and render it in another language. French, German, Estonian, whatever you have added. That is what the "Localized content" dropdown at the top of the app is for. It lists languages because translation is a per-language job.

The second job is adaptation. You keep the same language but change the wording for buyers in a specific market. Same French, but a Swiss shopper reads a different line than a French shopper. That is not a language switch, so it does not belong in a language dropdown.

So the dropdown showing only languages is correct. It is doing exactly what it is meant to do. Market adaptation simply has its own control, and it does not appear until you open a piece of content to edit.

That is the whole source of the confusion. People look for markets in the language menu, do not find them, and conclude the feature is missing or blocked by their plan. It is neither.

Where per-market adaptation actually lives

Here is the path that works. I tested it on a Horizon store with three markets set up.

• Open Translate & Adapt.
• Click any content type to open the side-by-side editor. Products is the easy one to start with.
• Click the menu at the top of the editor. This is the important step.
• The menu splits into two sections. "Translate across markets" lists your languages. Below it, "Adapt a market" lists your markets.
• Pick your market, then pick the language you want to adapt.

The editor menu in Shopify Translate and Adapt showing an Adapt a market section with each market listed

Now the editor changes. The heading reads "Adapting" your language "for" that market. You get two columns. The left column is your default text, shown for reference. The right column is where you type the market-specific version.

Fill the right column, then Save. The left column is never touched, so your default content stays exactly as it was for every other market.

The Shopify Translate and Adapt editor with a market column on the right for typing market-specific text, and Save at the top

That is per-market adaptation. It was there the whole time. It just does not show its face until you open a resource to edit.

There is a second way into the same screen if you prefer it. Go to Settings, then Languages. On your default language row there is an "Adapt" button. Click it, choose Translate & Adapt, and it drops you into the same market editor.

Switzerland versus the rest of Europe

This is where the merchant's real goal ran into a wall, and it is worth understanding before you start.

In Shopify, you adapt a whole market. You do not adapt a single country inside a market.

Their Switzerland was grouped inside a market called "Europe hors UE" alongside the UK and Norway. A market is the smallest unit you can adapt for. So adapting that market changes the text for all three countries at once. There is no way to give Switzerland alone a different line while it lives inside that group.

The Shopify Markets page showing a grouped market and the Create market button

To give one country its own copy, that country needs its own market.

The merchant had actually created a separate Switzerland market earlier, then deleted it. Deleting it is exactly what removed the option. With Switzerland folded back into the group, there was nothing left to adapt on its own.

The fix is to recreate it. Go to Settings, then Markets, then Create market, and add a Switzerland market. Once it exists, it shows up under "Adapt a market" with its own editable column, and you can write Swiss-only wording without affecting the UK or Norway.

Creating a country or region market like this is free, and there is no cap on how many you can make.

One market can hold several languages

The merchant raised a smart worry, and it is a common one, so it deserves its own section.

Switzerland has more than one official language. German, French, and Italian. Their fear was that giving Switzerland its own market would lock it to a single language.

It does not. One market can carry several active languages at the same time.

Think of how Canada works on Shopify. A single Canada market can serve both English and French, often through paths like /en-ca and /fr-ca. A Switzerland market can do the same with German, French, and Italian.

The setup order is simple. First add and publish the languages you want under Settings, then Languages. Then open your Switzerland market and add those languages to it. Translate & Adapt then holds a translation for each language, and market adaptation lets you fine-tune the wording on top of that, per market.

So you do not need one market per language. You need one Switzerland market that carries all three languages.

Is per-market adaptation on the Basic plan

Yes. This works on the Basic plan.

Country and region markets are available on every Shopify plan, and there is no limit on how many you can create. Translate & Adapt is a free first-party app, and content adaptation is part of it on all plans.

There is a separate, more advanced set of market features, such as changing theme sections or catalog pricing per market, where some capabilities are tied to higher plans. But plain text adaptation, the thing this merchant wanted, is not one of them. Basic is fine.

One condition applies to any plan. A market only lets you adapt the languages that have been added to that market. If a language is not on the market, there is nothing to adapt for it there. So make sure your Switzerland market has German, French, and Italian added before you expect to adapt those.

Translate, adapt, market, language: the words people mix up

Half the confusion here comes from four words that sound similar and are not. Here is the plain version.

A language is the tongue your content is written in. French, German, Estonian. You translate content into a language.

A market is a group of buyers you target with one shopping experience, usually by country or region. France is a market. "Europe hors UE" is a market. You adapt content for a market.

Translate means render the content in another language. This is the "Localized content" language dropdown.

Adapt means keep the language but change the wording for one market. This is the "Adapt a market" menu inside the editor.

A market can contain many countries, and it can carry many languages. But adaptation always happens at the market level, never at the country level inside a group. That single rule explains everything above. If you need a country to read differently from its neighbours, it has to be its own market.

What to check if a market still does not appear

If you open the editor menu and still do not see the market you expect under "Adapt a market", run through these.

• Confirm the market exists and is active under Settings, then Markets. A deleted or draft market will not appear.
• Confirm you opened a content type first. On the app home screen you only see languages. The "Adapt a market" section shows up inside the editor, once you have clicked into Products or another resource.
• Confirm the language you want is added to that market. Adaptation only offers the languages the market actually serves.
• If you just created the market, give the admin a moment and reload the app.

Once the market is active and carries the language, it appears, and the two-column editor lets you write copy that only that market's buyers will see.