Your analytics tell an interesting story.
Visitors from Mexico, Germany, France — they’re finding your products. They’re adding to cart. And somewhere between “Add to Cart” and “Place Order,” they vanish.
The culprit? Your checkout page is English-only.
That billing form asking for “First Name” and “Street Address”? A Spanish speaker sees unfamiliar words and an untrustworthy vibe. They bounce. You lose the sale.
This isn’t a small problem. For stores with international traffic, checkout abandonment from non-English speakers can run 40% higher than native speakers.
Let’s fix it.
Why Most WooCommerce Translation Solutions Are Overkill
The standard advice is “install WPML” or “use Polylang.” These are powerful plugins. They’re also built to translate your entire WordPress site — every page, post, menu, and widget.
That’s a sledgehammer when you need a scalpel.
Here’s what typically happens:
- 2-3 hours of setup and configuration
- $79-199/year in subscription fees
- Slower page loads from translation overhead
- Ongoing maintenance when themes or plugins update
- Duplicate content issues if not configured perfectly
Meanwhile, your actual problem is simple: you need “First Name” to display as “Nombre” when a Spanish speaker checks out.
What International Customers Actually Need at Checkout
Forget translating your blog posts or About page. When someone’s ready to hand over their credit card, they need exactly three things in their language:
1. Field labels they recognize “Nombre” not “First Name.” “Dirección” not “Address.” Basic stuff, but it builds instant trust.
2. Placeholder text that guides them That grey helper text inside input fields? It tells customers what format you expect. “nombre@ejemplo.com” makes more sense than “you@example.com” to a Spanish speaker.
3. Error messages they understand Nothing kills a sale faster than a red error message in a foreign language. If their email is invalid, tell them in words they comprehend.
Get these three things right and your international checkout experience transforms completely.
A Focused Solution for WooCommerce Checkout Translation
TranslateCart does one thing: translates your WooCommerce checkout fields. Nothing more, nothing less.
No bloat. No complex configuration. No annual subscription for the core features.
Here’s how it works in practice:
- A customer from Spain visits your store (browser language: Spanish)
- They browse products in English — that’s normal, they expect it
- They reach checkout and see everything in Spanish
- Trust established. Purchase completed.
Setup takes 15 minutes. Most of that is typing translations into a simple table.
Every Checkout Element You Can Translate
TranslateCart covers the complete WooCommerce checkout:
Billing & Shipping Fields
- First Name, Last Name, Company
- Country, Address, City, State, Postcode
- Phone, Email
Form Elements
- Field labels (the text above inputs)
- Placeholder text (the grey text inside inputs)
- Field descriptions (helper text below inputs)
- Required field indicators
Feedback & Navigation
- Validation error messages
- Section headings (Billing Details, Shipping Address, etc.)
- Button text
Both WooCommerce Classic Checkout and Block Checkout are fully supported.
25 Languages Ready to Go
Built-in support for:
European: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Czech, Greek, Russian
Asian: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian
Middle Eastern: Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish
RTL (right-to-left) languages display correctly. No extra configuration needed.
Automatic Language Detection
TranslateCart reads your customer’s browser language setting automatically. A visitor with their browser set to German sees German checkout fields. No clicking, no selecting.
Want to give customers manual control? Add a language selector widget. Works as a shortcode, widget, or automatic display above checkout fields.
Free vs Pro: What’s the Difference?
The free plugin handles everything above. It’s fully functional, not a crippled trial.
TranslateCart Pro ($99/year) adds three things:
Custom Checkout Fields Need a delivery date picker? Gift message box? VAT number field for EU compliance? Build them directly in the plugin with 10 field types — text, dropdown, checkbox, date picker, and more.
Conditional Logic Show fields based on cart contents. Display a gift message option only when gift wrap is in the cart. Ask for company VAT number only on orders over €500.
Email Translation Order confirmations, shipping notifications, all WooCommerce transactional emails — sent in the customer’s checkout language.
Most stores do fine with free. Pro is for stores with specific compliance needs or custom checkout requirements.
15-Minute Setup Guide
Step 1: Install Search “TranslateCart” in WordPress plugins or download from WordPress.org.
Step 2: Add Languages Go to WooCommerce → TranslateCart → Languages. Add the languages matching your international traffic (check Google Analytics → Geo data).
Step 3: Enter Translations Navigate to Field Translations. You’ll see a table: English on the left, your target languages on the right. Fill in translations for each field.
Step 4: Configure Language Selector Optional. If you want customers to switch languages manually, enable the selector and choose your display style.
Step 5: Test Use the built-in Checkout Preview or change your browser language to verify everything displays correctly.
Using checkout fields from other plugins? Click “Detect Custom Fields” to find and translate those too.
The ROI Question
Will this increase sales? Consider the psychology:
A customer is about to enter payment details on a foreign website. The form shows unfamiliar labels. An error message appears in a language they don’t speak.
How confident do they feel completing that purchase?
Now imagine the same checkout with every element in their native language. They know exactly what’s being asked. Error messages actually help them fix problems.
Same store. Same products. Dramatically different experience.
I can’t promise specific conversion lifts — every store is different. But removing language friction at the exact moment someone decides to buy? That’s straightforward ROI.
Get Started
Free version: Download from WordPress.org
Pro version: TranslateCart Pro — $99/year, 14-day money-back guarantee
Takes 15 minutes to set up. Check your international conversion rates in a few weeks and see the difference.
Questions? Leave a comment or post in the plugin support forum.