Matrixify does not support Shopify translations. If you run a multilingual store and need to bulk manage, export, or migrate your translated content, Matrixify can’t help — it has no translation columns, no locale support, and no integration with Shopify’s Translations API.
Altera supports full import, export, and cross-store migration of Shopify translations.
What Are Shopify Translations?#
Shopify allows merchants to translate their store content into multiple languages. Translations are stored separately from the base resource content and cover over 30 resource types, including:
- Products — title, description, handle, SEO title, SEO description
- Collections — title, description, handle
- Pages and blog articles — title, body content
- Metafields — translated values for publicly accessible metafields
- Metaobjects — fields marked as translatable
- Product options and option values — e.g., “Color” → “Couleur,” “Small” → “Petit”
- Navigation menus and links
- Online Store themes
- Shop policies
Translations are managed in the Shopify admin under Settings → Languages, or through Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app. They can also be managed via the GraphQL Admin API.
What Matrixify Does (and Doesn’t Do)#
Matrixify cannot:
- Export translations from a store
- Import translations into a store
- Transfer translations between stores
- Include translation columns in any of its spreadsheet formats
Matrixify’s supported data types include products, collections, customers, orders, discounts, pages, blogs, redirects, files, metaobjects, metafields, navigation menus, and more — but translations are not among them.
This means that when you use Matrixify to migrate products between stores, all translated content is left behind. Product titles, descriptions, SEO metadata, metafield values, and option names in every non-default language are lost.
The Store Migration Problem#
Shopify’s built-in CSV export (under Settings → Languages) does technically allow exporting translations, but it has serious limitations for migrations:
- Translations are linked to internal resource IDs, not handles or SKUs
- When you migrate products to a new store, the IDs change, breaking all translation associations
- You must manually re-map every translation to the new resource IDs — a fragile, labor-intensive process
- Large files get split into multiple CSVs
- You can only process one language at a time
Without a tool that handles this automatically, multilingual store migrations require hours of manual spreadsheet work to match translations to their new resource IDs.
How Altera Handles Translations#
Altera treats translations as a first-class data type with full import, export, and cross-store transfer support.
Export:
- Export translations for products, collections, pages, blogs, articles, menus, metaobjects, metafields, product options, and option values
- Filter by language, resource type, collection, metaobject type, or field key
- Exports include Handle, Parent Type, and Parent Handle columns for easy identification
- Exported files are compatible with Shopify’s own import format
Import:
- Create, update, or delete translations using MERGE, NEW, DELETE, or IGNORE commands per row
- NEW command skips existing translations to prevent accidental overwrites
- Resilient imports — if one field in a row fails, the others still save
Cross-store transfers:
- Export translations from one store and import directly into another
- Altera uses handle-based resource matching — when resource IDs don’t match the target store (because products were migrated), Altera automatically falls back to matching by handle
- No manual ID remapping required
Frequently Asked Questions#
Does Matrixify support Shopify translations? No. Matrixify does not support translations. It cannot import, export, or transfer translations between stores.
What happens to my translations when I migrate with Matrixify? They are lost. Matrixify migrates the base-language content (product titles, descriptions, etc.) but not the translations. You would need to re-do all translations in the new store manually, use Shopify’s limited CSV export with manual ID remapping, or use a tool like Altera.
Can I use Altera’s translations with Matrixify for everything else? Yes. Altera uses the same Matrixify-compatible spreadsheet format. You can use Matrixify for data types it supports and Altera for translations, metafield definitions, metaobject definitions, and other data types Matrixify doesn’t cover.
See our full Altera vs. Matrixify comparison for a breakdown of all the differences between the two tools, or check the FAQ for more common questions.
