An Arabic Shopify store needs more than translated text: a language setting, a theme with right-to-left support, suitable fonts, clean URLs, and a checkout and emails that read well in Arabic.
To build an Arabic Shopify store, add Arabic under Settings, then Languages, translate your content with Shopify's Translate & Adapt app or a translation app, and choose a theme that supports right-to-left (RTL) layouts. Then test URLs, checkout and customer emails in Arabic on a real phone. Shopify creates language URLs and hreflang tags for you, but the translation and the quality of the RTL layout are your work and your theme's.
In short
No, they are separate settings. Shopify's account language page says staff choose the admin language in their profile and that it changes only the admin, not the online storefront.
On 2 October 2026 Shopify's changelog announced improved support for three right-to-left languages, Arabic, Urdu and Hebrew, in the admin and in storefronts, including checkout, customer accounts and the Horizon family of themes. It also says your own product pages and other content keep showing in the languages you have enabled, so translating that content is still your job.
Decide your default language first. Shopify says the default is used in checkout and the theme, and that changing it deletes your existing translations for the language you switch to. If Arabic will be your default, try the option on a test store before you write content.
The Translate & Adapt app works manually (open a product, then More actions, then Localize) or with AI translations from Shopify. You can also use CSV files or a third-party app that uses Shopify's Translations API. Arabic is not among the 14 languages the app cannot translate, according to its requirements page.
Treat automatic translation as a draft. Shopify's automatic translation page says to review it before publishing and that legal policies cannot be translated automatically. The number of languages you can translate automatically depends on your store's country. As of October 2026 it is two besides your default for most countries, which covers Arabic plus English.
The requirements page also lists content the app cannot translate: product images, tags, collection filters and offline payment instructions. Check how those look in Arabic. For banners and photos that contain text, Shopify's manual translation page says you can use a different file per language through the theme editor's Localize option. Read every page, because untranslated fields show your default language.
Shopify's language requirements page says the latest versions of themes in the Horizon family support right-to-left languages, such as Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu, and that for any other theme you should confirm it so the layout is correct. The Theme Store has a Right-to-left feature filter, which is a useful starting list but not proof: the Theme Store requirements we read in October 2026 mention a language selector and a lang attribute, and no RTL requirement.
So test every candidate in Arabic with your own products. Check the mirrored layout, arrows and sliders, cart, search, filters, forms, the order of price and currency, and mixed Arabic and English text such as brand names. Our guides on choosing a Shopify theme and the RTL checklist cover the preview routine and the visual checks. You can browse Shopify themes on DevMarket, and ask any seller for a demo in Arabic.
Do not assume the font picker has Arabic. Shopify's font documentation describes the library as system fonts plus Google fonts, with character coverage given as Latin ranges and currency symbols, and suggests system fonts or other solutions for a wider range. Check your theme's typography settings and prefer a theme that bundles an Arabic font.
A custom font means code: upload the file under Content, then Files, and reference it with @font-face. Fonts download before text renders, so use WOFF2, few files and few weights, and check the licence. Do not add letter spacing to Arabic: MDN notes that it can make the text look broken. Our Arabic WordPress guide lists font families, and speeding up your Shopify store covers their cost.
Each published language gets its own URLs. Shopify's international SEO page describes three structures per market: subfolders (recommended for most stores), subdomains, which need DNS set-up, and country domains, which need registering and managing. Its international domains page adds that language-only subfolders such as /ar can exist only on your primary market, while secondary markets combine a language and a country code, so a UAE market in Arabic would use a pattern such as /ar-ae. Check the suffix when you set the market up.
Hreflang is automatic. Shopify builds the tags from your market and language settings, points x-default at the primary domain and lists all market URLs in the sitemap. Shopify warns that turning the setting off can hurt SEO unless you add your own tags.
Handles need care. Automatic translation does not cover URL handles: you add each translated handle by hand, Shopify then redirects the default-language URL to it, and the word products in the path cannot be translated. The help pages we read do not say how an Arabic title becomes a handle, so create a test product with an Arabic title, read its handle and choose one rule. The redirects page contradicts itself on whether redirects cover language subfolders, so test one on an Arabic URL.
Shopify's localisation page says that once a language is published, checkout and email notifications appear in the customer's language, and that you can edit and preview email translations for each language. The language requirements page says checkout has pre-translated content for 33 languages. The pages we read do not list them, so place a test order in Arabic. To change wording, open Settings, then Checkout, then Edit checkout content, as the checkout language page explains.
The help pages we read do not describe RTL layout for emails, so send a test order to a phone mail app and read the numbers, links and punctuation. If your payment provider uses a hosted page, check its language too: Tabby says its page follows your store language, so ask the others. See Shopify Payments in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf for the payment side.
Set the store currency under Settings, then General, as the business settings page explains. The same menu has Change currency formatting. The help pages we read do not describe digit shapes, so decide whether you show Western digits (0 to 9) or Arabic-Indic digits, and check the theme, checkout, emails and any invoice app. Shopify says selling in several currencies needs Shopify Payments or Adyen.
Write product content for Arabic buyers instead of translating line by line. Use the words buyers search for, keep brand and model names in the script buyers know, use one term for each size and unit, and put delivery, returns and cash on delivery information in Arabic. Have a person translate your legal policies. Saudi parcels also need the customer's National Address: see shipping and cash on delivery in Saudi Arabia.
Yes. Shopify announced improved Arabic support in the admin, storefronts, checkout and customer accounts in October 2026. You still translate your own content and choose a suitable theme.
Yes, one that supports RTL. Shopify says the latest Horizon family does, and that you must confirm it for others.
Yes. Add both languages, publish them and assign them to your markets. Each language gets its own URLs and hreflang tags.
It can translate much of your content with AI, but you must review it, legal policies are excluded and some content types need other routes.
Neither wins on its own, because the theme decides RTL quality on both. Shopify handles language URLs and hreflang, while WordPress gives more control through plugins: see building an Arabic WordPress website.
Add Arabic to a test store, translate ten real products and run the phone test. Then read how to choose a Shopify theme before you commit to one, and browse Shopify themes on DevMarket.
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