If you want to start selling worldwide, be ready for a lot of work. You need to translate all of your pages, set up multiple currencies, personalise email templates and do a lot of other things. But first, you need to learn more about the store views in Magento.
They are the essential step in your multi-languuage store journey. That's what allows you to have different language in your store.
For many the store view concept becomes blurry as soon as the difference between websites, stores and store views is mentioned. But it's not that complicated.
So, today, you'll dive deeper into Magento hierarchy and understand the importance of the store view scope. We'll explain its capabilities and walk you through a detailed guide on how to create one.
Ready?
Store Views in Magento Hierarchy
You can't define what Magento store view is without looking at the Magento hierarchy first. It consists of websites, stores and store views, where the last one is the lowest level.
So, first, you create multiple Websites, then a Store (or a few of them) which you assign to a website. And finally, you divide a store(s) into multiple Store Views.
Each level has unique features and options, allowing you to configure pricing, SEO and payment methods, etc. But let's sum it all up.
- Website (available in Magento by default) — the highest level in the Magento hierarchy, which represents one entity (e.g. a website that sells everything for pets).
- Store — the second level, which allows you to sell different items within the same website (e.g. pet accessories, pet food, pet clothes, etc.)
- Store view — the third level, which allows you to translate all of the pages you have within one store into multiple languages (e.g. English store views, French store views, German store views etc.)
This leads up to the following definition.
What is Magento Store View?
Magento store view is the final level in the Magento hierarchy, which allows merchants to offer a personalised customer experience through multiple languages, currencies and other customisations like design.
Benefits of Magento 2 Store Views
There are several reasons why creating different store views in Magento is essential for your business performance:
- Reaching more customers: Create multiple language store views (e.g. English, French, German) to allow customers from different countries to navigate your store in their preferred language.
- Personalised shopping: You can configure multi-currency for each store view. It allows customers from different countries to see prices in their local currency.
- Better SEO: You can even configure different names, descriptions, meta titles and keywords for a product in different store views. It improves SEO and boosts your visibility in international search traffic.
- Easy management: Running several versions of your store from one backend means less time spent on management, lower operational costs and fewer technical challenges.
No doubt, having store views in Magento helps improve user experience by giving a more personalised shopping environment. So how do you actually create them?
How to Create Store Views in Magento?
The process comes down to a few steps. So, watch this short video or follow the steps below.
Step 1: Add New Store View
First, navigate to Stores > Settings > All stores and click on the Create Store View button to start.
Then fill out the following information about your new store view:
- Store: Choose a store the newly created store view will be assigned to. If you run one store, this will be your default store.
- Store View Name: Give the Magento store view a Name, depending on the language or region you are targeting, for example, English or English Store View.
- Store View Code: Enter a unique code for each store view, like Eng for English Store View, Fr for the French one, and so on.
Note: It is important that you set store codes, sinceadding store codes to URLs is a good SEO practice.
- Status: if you want the new store view to be visible to customers, set the status to Enabled.
- Sort Order: It defines the store view position in a list of Magento store views. Consequently, if you need to add several store views to the store, this feature will help you to list them in a preferred order.
Don't forget to press the Save button once you finish to see your store view in the list of current Magento store views.
Step 2: Set Locale for Store View
Customers are more likely to buy products from a store that speaks their language. So, obviously, the next step is to setthe language (locale) for each store view.
For that, just navigate to Admin Panel > Stores > Configuration > General and switch to the Store View you need in the dropdown list.
Then, find the Locale Options under General and set Locale (language) for the store view. Contibue like that for all your store views.
Don't forget to Save the language after you finish.
Magento Store View Management
Once you create a store view in Magento and set a locale, there are a few other things to consider.
Change Default Store View
After you add new store views to Magento, the store switcher will appear on frontend, allowing customers to customers to change store views manually. However, customers will still land on the default store view initially.
So, Magento 2 default store view is the store view customers are directed to from the search results. However, you can change that.
Just navigate to Stores > All Stores and choose the Store you want to change the default store view for.
Then, set the Default Store View for this particular store and press Save.
Set up Multi-Currency
The Magento multi currency option allows you to show prices in the customer's local currency. It simplifies the purchasing process and helps to build credibility between you and your customer.
Besides, this feature is available out of the box, so once you configure store views, set a unique currency for each of them.
Just navigate to Stores > Configuration > General > Currency Setup > Currency Options. Then set the Base and Default Display and Allowed Currencies in your store.
Same as with the language switcher, once you set up the allowed currencies, Magento will display the currency switcher on the frontend. However, you can alsoset up the auto currency switcher.
Translate Content
Having multiple store views is not about the store switcher alone, it's about experience. That's why be ready to deal with a lot of translations once you create store views in Magento.
You can do it all manually for products, categories, blog posts and other pages. But covering the burros, labels or email template is a different kind of work.
That's why you might need a more straightforward, simple and non-developer way to translate your store — Extension.
Example of the product description translation into multiple languages in a translation form
Configure SEO Options
Since multiple new languages mean more SEO opportunities, don't ignore the SEO options when translating your pages. If you want to boost your local SEO and appear in more searches, translate meta data and URLs for different pages.
Region-based content feels more personalised and customers are more likely to click through from search. However, don't forget about the hreflang tags in Magento to make sure Google understand the relationships between various pages of your site.
Switch Between Store Views Automatically
On the storefront, customers can easily switch between different store views using the store switcher. But only after they have already landed on the default store view (which is not always in their language).
To avoid such an outcome, you can set up the and switch the store view automatically. Or give your customers a choice before switching.
Example of the language switcher pop-up on Magento storefront
This significantly increases the chances of them staying in your store longer and eventually buying something in a language they understand.
So, if you want to create a multi-language store in Magento to target international markets, store views are the first step. But don't forget to use them properly and optimise user experience on each of them to get results.
