How to Translate Shopify Post-Purchase Surveys

To translate a Shopify post-purchase survey, check two layers: the questionnaire you write and the interface text supplied by the app. Translating one does not automatically translate the other.

OrderSurvey's Thank you and Order status survey interface supports English and German. Buttons, progress labels and built-in messages use Shopify's locale selection. Your questions, answer choices and custom completion copy remain as you wrote them.

That distinction explains a common mixed-language result: a German Absenden button can appear underneath an English question. The button has a translation; the question still needs your German wording.

Identify which text needs changing

Shopify's checkout-language guide explains how to add store languages and edit Shopify's own checkout wording. Those settings are separate from the questionnaire you save in OrderSurvey.

For extension controls, Shopify selects from translations supplied by the app. Customer locale is considered before shop locale and the extension default. Shopify also states that merchants cannot add or override those extension translations through its localization system. See Shopify's extension localization documentation.

An unsupported customer language therefore does not guarantee that every control will appear in English: a supported shop locale can be selected first. OrderSurvey's default is English. Do not assume that adding a language to your storefront adds it to the survey interface.

Write the questionnaire in the intended language

Start with one short question. Translate the meaning, the answer choices and any follow-up together. Have someone fluent in the intended language review the wording before publishing it.

Illustrative German example: A merchant wants to ask where a customer first discovered the store.

This is sample wording, not a customer result or a complete attribution taxonomy. Choose options that fit your actual acquisition channels; the discovery-question options guide explains how to separate them.

Open the survey in OrderSurvey and edit each question and answer option that customers will encounter. Review any conditional follow-ups and custom result text as part of the same change. Save the questionnaire and test every affected path after changing answer labels.

The built-in completion message can use the interface translation. A custom success message or result title remains your copy. A translated first question followed by an English custom thank-you message is still an unfinished translation.

Use the branch-testing checklist to check the whole flow. If the extra detail is optional, also test leaving it blank; the required and optional questions guide explains what is saved.

Keep shipping country separate from language

OrderSurvey supports shipping-country targeting. It does not currently offer a customer-language targeting rule.

A rule for orders shipping to Germany selects a destination. It does not establish that the buyer prefers German. Likewise, a German-speaking customer can ship an order to another country.

You can prepare questionnaires in different languages and use country rules when that country-based audience is intentional. Label that decision accurately in your setup notes. It is not automatic routing by browser language, checkout language or a customer's stated preference.

If the requirement is to switch the same questionnaire automatically for each customer's language, the current country rule does not meet it. Confirm that limitation before building a multilingual rollout around it. The survey setup guide covers the available targeting fields and page setup.

Test both the controls and the saved answer

Begin with the builder preview to review wording and branches. Then use authorized test orders to check the real customer experience. Preview completion alone does not prove that a live response was saved.

Run these checks on Thank you and Order status separately, using suitable unanswered orders. The two pages have separate app-block placements; a working Thank you block does not confirm that the Order status block was added and saved.

1. German journey: Confirm the question and options are your German copy. Check built-in controls such as Absenden, Weiter and Zurück wherever the chosen layout uses them.
2. English journey: Check the English controls and confirm what question text actually appears. An authored German question will not become English just because the controls do.
3. Another customer language: If your store serves it, inspect the fallback actually selected. Check the surrounding Shopify page and survey separately.
4. Each completion path: Check the default completion message and every custom result your questionnaire uses. Look for untranslated text after submission as well as before it.
5. A saved response: Submit a known test answer, verify it in OrderSurvey, and keep that test out of merchant reporting. Confirm that long labels, accents and line wrapping remain readable on a phone.

If the survey does not appear, check placement, enabled status and targeting before treating it as a translation problem. Use the Order status setup guide for that page's checks. Test in your own store or with the merchant's consent before changing their setup.

Keep translated answers interpretable

Retain the original language and questionnaire version in your reporting notes. If you combine equivalent choices from different versions, document the mapping instead of silently replacing the saved wording.

For example, a reporting category might combine Search engine and Suchmaschine if those options had the same intended meaning and comparable question context. Keep I don't remember separate from Other in both languages. Review free-text answers in context before grouping them.

Record the date, question wording, answer choices and targeting when you change a translation. The questionnaire change log gives you a practical template. Changes in language, audience or answer options can change the meaning of a comparison; they do not establish a conversion improvement by themselves.

Start with one language you can verify

OrderSurvey Free includes in-app survey analytics, conditional follow-ups and 100 submitted survey responses across the store per rolling 30 days. Unlimited is $24 USD/month and adds CSV export, unlimited responses and low-score NPS webhook alerts. The supported interface languages are not expanded by upgrading; see the plan details.

Install OrderSurvey from the Shopify App Store, write one useful question in your customer's language, and verify the full path on both pages. See the product walkthrough, or book setup help to review your intended language and placement requirements with Dennis.

Frequently asked questions