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Storefront Locale Files

Last updated Oct 6, 2026 View as Markdown

Storefront locale files have a .json file extension, and control translations for storefront content. These translations can be edited by sellers through the theme's language editor.

Rather than hard-coded text strings, theme layouts, templates, snippets, and Liquid assets can reference these translations with the Liquid translation filter (t filter). This returns the appropriate translated string from the locale file for the active language.

Location

Storefront locale files are located in the locales directory of the theme:

└── theme
    ...
    ├── config
    └── locales
      ├── en.default.json
      ├── ar.json
      ...

Schema

Locale files need to follow a specific naming structure. They also follow a basic organizational structure:

• Category: The top-level category of your translations.
• Group: The second level grouping of translations within a category.
• Translation: The third level, which represents the individual translations.

{
  "my_category": {
    "my_group": {
      "my_translation": "translation text",
      // ...
    },
    // ...
  },
  // ...
}

File Naming

You can use the 2-letter lowercase language representation to name your locale files.

Language	Format
French	fr.json
English	en.json
Arabic	ar.json

Additionally, you must designate a default locale file for each type.

Default Locale File

You must designate a default locale file in the format of *.default.json, where * is your selected language. This file contains the translations for the default language of the theme. Only one default file is permitted.

Example
en.default.json

Usage

When working with storefront locale files, you should familiarize yourself with referencing schema translations.

Reference schema translations

To reference translations from the storefront locale file for your theme's active language, you can use translation keys and the Liquid translation filter (t filter).

For example, let's assume you have locale files for English, Arabic, and French. In this case, you might have the following in each associated locale file:

en.default.json (English)

{
  "cart": {
    "page": {
      "title": "Shopping Cart"
    }
  }
}

ar.json (Arabic)

{
  "cart": {
    "page": {
      "title": "عربة التسوق"
    }
  }
}

fr.json (French)

{
  "cart": {
    "page": {
      "title": "Panier"
    }
  }
}

To reference this translation, you might use something like the following:

<span>{{ "cart.page.title" | t }}</span>

The output is customized based on the settings in each locale file:

<!-- English -->
<span>Shopping Cart</span>

<!-- Arabic -->
<span>عربة التسوق</span>

<!-- Frenhc -->
<span>Panier</span>

Placeholder Replacement

Translation strings can use placeholder symbols to insert dynamic values when displayed.

Include the % symbol or any symbol in your locale file as a placeholder:

/locales/en.default.json

{
  "layout": {
    "header": {
      "hello_user": "Hello %!"
    }
  }
}

When referencing the translation in your theme, use the replace filter to substitute the placeholder:

{{ 'layout.header.hello_user' | t | replace: '%', 'Mark' }}

This outputs:

Hello Mark!