Shopify market-specific translations: Across markets vs Adapt a market

British English is not US English. “Colour” versus “color”, a different returns window, sometimes a legal sentence that cannot be shared. Shopify Markets let one language differ by region. A single FR title for France and Canada is then too coarse. Shopify market-specific translations is the split in the editor: fill the language once, then override only the fields that must diverge.

OO - Ultimate AI Translations supports both. Docs Market-specific translations: *Across markets* versus *Adapt a market*. Listing (31 Oct 2026): Free with your own AI, unlimited languages and markets, language switcher; no backups, no scheduled jobs, no App AI. Professional $10/mo + usage: 1+1 backup, monthly schedule, glossary, App AI ~$0.01/unit. Plus $20/mo + usage: 5+5 backups, daily schedule. 0 reviews. Launched 14 Oct 2026.

Related: translation job history. Job details show market context. This article is the picker at the top of Translate.

A language is not a market

Shopify publishes locales per market. `en` can sit on UK and US. Without a market layer, one EN title overwrites both storefronts.

Common shortcuts:

Two wordings in one field, slash in the middle. “Hoodie / Sweatshirt”. SEO suffers. Canada inherits UK spelling or the reverse.

Fill only the primary locale. France gets FR. A Swiss market that also uses FR inherits “livraison France”.

Edit in Shopify Translate & Adapt, then run an AI job. Without a lock, the job wipes the market override. In this app a save in the editor stays locked, including per market context.

None of that is: Across markets as the base, Adapt a market only where spelling or law differs.

Two contexts

Across markets. One translation for a language, used wherever that language is published. Default shop-level locale. Most of the catalog belongs here.

Adapt a market. Overrides for a specific market + language. Use when wording, spelling, currency mentions, or legal copy should differ. Docs examples: British vs American English, French for France vs Canada.

Inheritance: in Adapt a market, fields without an override show the Across markets translation for that language (if it exists). Edit + save creates a market override. Until then, shoppers in that market still see the shared language.

Locks, backups, and jobs respect market context. A lock or backup for one market does not apply to another. Job details show either a specific adapted market or “Across all markets”.

Scheduled jobs are Professional (monthly) or Plus (daily), not Free. Manual Across markets / Adapt a market in the editor works with your own AI on Free. App AI is paid.

Jobs skip handles, URLs, IDs, SKUs, size codes, JSON, empty source, and locked fields. A market override you saved is locked like any other manual save.

Adapt one market

1. Open Translate.

2. Open the context picker (language / market control at the top).

3. Under Adapt a market, choose the market, then the language for that market.

4. Select content. Edit only fields that must differ.

5. Save. Those fields become market-specific overrides and stay locked against automatic jobs.

To fill the base instead:

1. Context picker → Translate across markets, pick a language.

2. Translate as usual. That value is the base for every market until an override exists.

Same-page tips:

• Do Across markets for the catalog first; adapt only markets that need different copy.

• Markets appear in the picker after they exist in Shopify admin (including web presence / domains where relevant).

• Do not override twenty fields on every product. One UK legal paragraph is enough if the rest can inherit shared EN.

Glossary and brand voice (Professional+) ride along on the AI request. They do not replace a market override: UK “colour” belongs in the UK context — or as a per-language glossary term — not as a single Across-markets EN if US needs “color”.

The language switcher (Free) lists published languages/markets. Unpublished locales can still be prepared on jobs; shoppers see them only after publish.

Floor: US primary, UK market added

Shop “Knitwear”. Primary market US, `en`. UK market added, also `en`. Product title can stay almost the same. Care instructions: US “color safe”, UK “colour-safe”. Policy page returns paragraph: different window.

1. Across markets, English: catalog + theme, Missing/Outdated. Free + own AI, or App AI on Professional.

2. Picker → Adapt a market → United Kingdom → English.

3. Change care + policy fields only. Save. Locked in the UK context.

4. Job history: an “Across all markets” run leaves those UK overrides. A UK job skips them while locked.

5. Switcher: UK domain shows UK-EN. US keeps Across-EN.

CTA: OO - Ultimate AI Translations.

A market override is still a translation of a customer-facing field: title, description, SEO title/description, option labels, image alt. Jobs will not invent a second handle for the UK. If UK needs a different URL, that is Shopify Markets/domains, not this editor.

Draft themes can be translated too (listing + docs). A draft theme job is its own content type. Do not assume a UK product override copies into an unpublished theme until you run that type in the UK context — or Across markets, then adapt the theme strings that actually differ.

If the picker is empty: the market is missing in Shopify admin, or it has no language/web presence yet. The app does not invent markets.

Start here

1. Create the market in Shopify. No market, no Adapt option.

2. Across markets first, one language, small content type.

3. Adapt one market, two fields, save.

4. Check the context line on job details.

5. Professional is for schedule/glossary/backups/App AI — not permission to keep a UK override.

Docs: Market-specific translations, What is OO Translations?.

Wrap-up

Shopify market-specific translations are not a second catalog. Across markets fills the language. Adapt a market overrides only what differs, locked against jobs. UK vs US English is the textbook case; FR-FR vs FR-CA uses the same picker.

Open the picker in OO - Ultimate AI Translations. One shared EN, two UK fields, inherit the rest.