How to localize Customer Hub for multi-language stores

You will learn

Learn how to configure Customer Hub for international audiences, including how automatic system translations work and how to manually translate your custom content.

If you also sell in multiple markets with market-specific inventories, currencies, etc., please refer to how to use Customer Hub with Shopify Markets. 

Overview

Customer Hub supports internationalization (i18n), allowing you to provide a seamless, localized experience for global customers.

There are two types of translations within Customer Hub:

• System Strings: Standard UI text (e.g., "Orders," "Profile," buttons) which Klaviyo automatically translates for you.
• Custom Content: Text you create (e.g., Welcome messages, FAQs, Content Blocks) which you must translate manually.

Supported languages and locales on your website

Klaviyo provides automatic system translations for a wide range of languages, including:

• English (United States) — en-US
• English (United Kingdom) — en-GB
• English (Australia)— en-AU
• French (France) (Français) — fr-FR
• German (Germany) (Deutsch) — de-DE
• Italian (Italy) (Italiano) — it-IT
• Spanish (Spain) (Español — España) — es-ES
• Portuguese (Brazil) (Português — Brasil) — pt-BR
• Korean (South Korea) (한국어) — ko-KR
• Danish (Denmark) (Dansk) — da-DK
• Dutch (Netherlands) (Nederlands) — nl-NL
• Finnish (Finland) (Suomi) — fi-FI
• Hungarian (Hungary) (Magyar) — hu-HU
• Japanese (Japan) (日本語) — ja-JP
• Norwegian Bokmål (Norway) (Norsk bokmål) — nb-NO
• Polish (Poland) (Polski) — pl-PL
• Spanish (Latin America) (Español — Latinoamérica) — es-LA
• Swedish (Sweden) (Svenska) — sv-SE

If your primary locale isn’t supported, the experience may fall back to English.

How language detection works

Customer Hub detects the language a visitor uses based on their browser settings. This means Customer Hub will typically automatically stay in sync with your website. Even if you have a language switcher on your site, Customer Hub will change its language automatically as your site language changes.

In the event that this detection does not work or the detected browser language is not yet supported, the Hub will render in your default language.

Setting a default language

You can select a default language for your Hub. If a customer’s preferred language is not supported or detected, the Hub will revert to this selection.

1. Navigate to Customer Hub > Design.
2. Under Language Preferences, select your Default Language.
3. Click Save.

Translating custom content

For content you write yourself—such as Welcome Messages, FAQs, and Content Blocks—you can provide translations for each locale you support. Klaviyo has consolidated these edits into the design editor to make bulk translation easier.

To add translations:

1. Navigate to Customer Hub > Design.
2. Click on the "translations" button in the top bar.

   1. 

3. In the translations UI, you'll see all the custom text content you can edit

   1. 

4. Select the language you wish to edit (e.g., French). Note that this is also where you add / remove languages you want for Customer Hub.

   1. 

5. Review and edit your text content. 
   • The left panel allows you to see a list of the text strings and edit them. 
   • The right canvas allows easy preview of each tab of Customer Hub in your selected language. 
6. Repeat this process for all supported languages.
7. Click Save.

Note: If you do not provide a translation for a specific language, the text will display in your account's default language.

Managing translations when you update your text content

Whenever you make an update to any custom text content, Klaviyo will automatically detect this and remind you to review new translations. Klaviyo also provides automated AI translations for all text content by default so you can easily update everything in one go. 

1. Navigate to Customer Hub > Design.
2. Click on "review translations" on the banner.

   1. 

3. The process will step you through each language, highlighting which text strings changed, and you can either manually update them, or click "update translations" to use AI translation. 

   1. 

4. Once you're done reviewing one language, click "review next languge" to continue and repeat this process for each language you support. 

   1. 

Admin vs. Customer view

Your experience inside Klaviyo (the Admin UI) is separate from what your customers see.

• Admin View: The Customer Hub admin UI follows your personal user settings in Klaviyo. If your Klaviyo account is set to English, the admin builder will remain in English.
• Customer View: The live Hub follows the onsite settings described above to match the shopper's experience.

Limitations

• Customer Agent & Helpdesk: Currently, the Customer Agent and Helpdesk products have limited support outside of English.
• Content Blocks: Images within content blocks are not currently localizable; the same image will display for all locales.

Supported languages in the Klaviyo app 

Within the Klaviyo app, Customer Hub supports the same languages as the rest of the Klaviyo platform. You can learn more here.