How to use WPML to translate a WooCommerce PDF Invoice

The ability to sell to anyone, anytime, from anywhere in the world is the most significant benefit of having an online store.

However, in what language is your WooCommerce store created? Most probably English, right?

That’s the basic idea. All online buyers are generally believed to prefer viewing products and their descriptions in English.

However, 75% of the world’s population does not speak English. Despite the fact that English dominates the internet, you are still losing out on the majority of customers.

What if a French citizen attempts to buy from your website but cannot navigate it because of a language barrier? What if a potential customer leaves your website because they couldn’t grasp the product descriptions in full?

If you simply use one language for your WooCommerce store, phrases like “Global reach” and “Global audience” wouldn’t be accurate. We will get to statistics later in this article.

And, the solution? Creating a WooCommerce store with many languages using the WPML plugin.

If the WPML plugin can solve the problem for an online store, what about WooCommerce invoices?

We are aware that receipts and invoices are crucial components of the customer experience in your store, and it is also important that they need to be provided in their native language. This requires translating the WooCommerce invoice as well. Therefore, It is necessary to translate WooCommerce invoices as well.

But, how?

In this article, we will discuss multilingual WooCommerce stores, the WPML plugin, and in-depth instructions on how to translate WooCommerce invoices using WPML.

Let’s get started!

To put it simply, a multilingual website is one that gives its content in several languages. Users have the option of changing the language they want to read the content in, or the website owner can set up the site to reroute visitors and provide localized material based on users’ locations.

Consider a WooCommerce store that is primarily in English. However, you have also translated the material into French and Spanish. Visitors to your store have the option of reading your content in any language they like. It makes sense for a Frenchman to want to read the product description in French.

• Around the world, 40% of online buyers and customers will not make a purchase from a website if it is not in their native tongue.
• According to CSA research, 72% of customers are more inclined to make a purchase from a store that offers services in their native language.
• The largest eCommerce market is China, which accounts for more than half of all worldwide eCommerce sales.
• The fastest-growing eCommerce markets are in Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, and India.
• The Asia-Pacific area is by far the most profitable market for retail e-commerce, with expected total digital sales of close to $2.992 trillion.

If the statistics listed above don’t convince you to create a multilingual business, we don’t know what will!

Everyone is aware that Chinese people don’t speak English and don’t even care about other languages besides their own. They do, however, control the largest eCommerce market in the world.

India is a major market with a population of 1.38 billion people and is developing quickly in terms of technology.

Despite the fact that Asia-Pacific has by far the largest eCommerce market, very few of the nations in this region have English as their primary language.

However, if you want to grow your operations internationally, get clients from different nations, and experience a large increase in revenue, you must develop a shop that supports several languages.

If your business offers several languages, your brand will be able to diversify and become more relevant on a worldwide level. Just because of that, if you take into account the unique cultural requirements of other countries, potential clients in other nations will feel like they can relate to your brand and they will trust your company more.

To rank highly in search engines around the world, you require a solid global SEO strategy. Your worldwide SEO approach will be significantly aided by having a different version of your store for each language and area.

What is WPML? One of the best multilingual WordPress plugins is WPML, abbreviated as WordPress Multilingual, which enables you to translate and display your WooCommerce store in 40 different languages. The comprehensive translation features provided by WPML allow you to either manually translate certain sections of your website or have WPML convert your entire website into the language of your choice.

WordPress by default only lets you select one language for your WooCommerce store. To translate and show your information in many languages, you must install a multilingual plugin.

Additionally, WPML provides language switchers so that your WooCommerce customers may choose which language they wish to view the information in on the front end of the website.

For an eCommerce store, WPML is a premium plugin that costs $99 per year and provides the WooCommerce Multilingual extension. You can effortlessly construct and maintain WooCommerce sites that support many languages and currencies with the help of this extension.

Let’s first explore why translating WooCommerce invoices are necessary before learning how to do so with WPML.

The order and sales processing of your store depends on invoices in many ways. A WooCommerce store must generate a PDF invoice for each order it receives.

It is a legal document for maintaining records that also has a big impact on building your brand’s reputation. You can demonstrate professionalism and build brand value by delivering an invoice.

To improve your customer’s buying experiences, you can use customized WooCommerce invoices as a marketing tool.

Do PDF invoices generated by WooCommerce now require translation?

Remember when we discussed how showing content in your audience’s native language may boost sales and foster trust?

Well, the journey of your customer doesn’t finish on the checkout page. All of your order fulfillment documentation, including the WooCommerce invoice, should be in the same language to give consumers the ideal shopping experience. The journey doesn’t end until they receive the product.

Consider a scenario in which your store has a Spanish version and a Spanish-speaking customer is browsing it in their language. They eventually placed an order after reading about the products in Spanish.

They would undoubtedly require the invoice in Spanish as well in order to verify their order and for record-keeping purposes. It will not be acceptable to the customer at all if your store’s default language is, say, German and your invoices are in German.

Gaining credibility, enhancing the brand’s reputation, and behaving responsibly will all be completely ineffective. Furthermore, it’s possible that your client will never understand the invoice.

Therefore, you must translate WooCommerce invoices to ensure that your customers have the best possible experience.

The WooCommerce core plugin does not allow you to make and send invoices along with multilingual support, thus the first thing you will need is a plugin like WooCommerce PDF invoice, packing slips, delivery notes, & shipping label.

Once the plugin is configured, you also need to install the WPML plugin extension jotted below: plugin and WPML

You must make sure your site complies with WPML’s minimum requirements before installing WooCommerce and the WooCommerce PDF invoice & packing slips plugin.

Step 1: Install the plugin

Before installing the WPML plugin, make sure you have installed and activated the WooCommerce PDF invoices, packing slips, delivery notes & shipping labels plugin.

After configuring the plugin, you also need to install the WPML plugin extension jotted below:

• WPML Multilingual CMS (the core plugin)
• WooCommerce Multilingual
• WPML String Translation
• WPML Media Translation

After installing and activating the WPML plugin, you must first set it up for the necessary languages.

Step 2: Navigate to the String Translation

Once the languages are configured, go to WPML > String Translations as displayed below to make changes to the plugin.

Opens the String Translation page. Choose wf-woocommerce-packing-list from the Select strings with domain dropdown which pertains to the WooCommerce PDF Invoices, Packing Slips, Delivery Notes & Shipping Labels plugin.

If you select that option, the entire plugin’s string set will load on the screen. On the other hand, you can use the search box to look for a particular string and translate it separately.

For example, let’s walk through the procedure for translating the string “Shipping Address:“.

After selecting the translations link, type the translation text into the appropriate language as shown below:

In the space provided, type the translated text. For example, for Danish translation, enter Afsendelsesadresse:, for French, enter Adresse de livraison, and for German, enter Lieferanschrift. When the relevant language is selected, the concerned translated text will be shown in the PDF Invoices, Packing Slips, Delivery Notes, and Shipping Label plugin instead of the Shipping Address: text.

Once finished, check the box that says “Translation is complete” and click the Save button.

To see the changes, adjust the language setting on your website. When you print the invoice in Danish and change the language, you’ll see that the shipping address is as follows:

To be Noted:

• For proper translation, please make sure the profile language is set to the chosen language.
• Simply navigate to WPML > Themes and plugin localization if the strings you want to translate are not displayed in the domain you’ve chosen.
• Navigate to the plugins’ Strings section from the screen. Click the Scan chosen plugins for strings button as displayed below after choosing the WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips plugin from the list.

When the scan is finished, all of the strings in the plugin will automatically populate the String Translation domain, where you can then create the necessary translations.

Sample Translated PDF invoice

The potential for your brand to go global is limitless, and it can double the online traffic, revenue, and sales.

No matter their native language, geography, or cultural background, clients from anywhere in the world can shop at a multilingual WooCommerce store online. Customizing the store to each visitor’s unique needs, it does this based on geography.
Hope you enjoy reading the article. We encourage you to read this article WPML compatibility – product import export plugin for WooCommerce.