How To Set Up a Multilingual WooCommerce Bookings Store?

One of the best ways to build brand recognition is to expand it to the global market. This not only allows you to target a vast audience but also ensures high traffic to your website. If you are a WooCommerce business owner looking for a way to expand your business then one of the best ways is to have a multilingual website.

In this article, we will check out how you can set up a multilingual WooCommerce Bookings store that provides bookings to customers in different languages. This article will cover both the Translation as well as Localization process to set up an online booking store with the help of the WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin.


WooCommerce Multilingual – Translation vs Localization

When it comes to targeting audiences from different parts of the world, there are two processes that you can use. These are,

  • Translation

Translation is the process of converting the content of a website to any other language in the world. This seems perfect when you want customers to know the literal meaning of the content of a website. This way you can convert your product description, features, and policies to the targeted language for the customer to know its meaning.

  • Localization

Localization is similar to translation as this also requires converting the content of a website to another language. However, localization involves adapting the content based on the language and culture of the people. The focus is less on grammar or vocabulary and more on the nativity of the language.


Setting up a WooCommerce Bookings Store in Different Languages

Keeping in mind the concept of language translation and localization, you can easily expand your online bookings store to target either a localized audience or customers from multiple countries.

How to Provide Online Bookings in Multiple Languages?

To provide online bookings in multiple languages like English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, etc., you can make use of the popular WordPress MultiLingual plugin (WPML) with the WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin.

WPML and WooCommerce Bookings plugin

To check out how you can set up the WPML plugin check out their documentation regarding the WPML Setup. Once you have installed the WPML and set it up, you can check out the How to Set Up WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin.

Once the plugins are set up, your website will have a dedicated Language Widget on your website using which customers can choose their native language and your website will be translated based on their selection.


WPML Widget


So let’s say, your customers select the German Language, and the website language, as well as the content of the website, will change to German.


  • Booking Calendar

Bookings Calendar In German


  • Booking an Appointment

Bookings


  • Cart Page

Cart Page in German


  • Placing a Booking Successfully

Orders page


  • Order Completion Email

Order Completion Email

Similarly, you can set up tons of languages using the WPML plugin, and the WooCommerce Bookings plugin will make sure that your translations are on point, always.


How to Provide Online Bookings in your Native Language?

If you are not looking for a multi-lingual website but an online booking system based on your native language, WooCommerce Bookings, and Appointments plugin has you covered. By default, the plugin comes with the following translations,

  • Danish
  • German
  • Spanish (Chile)
  • Spanish
  • Estonian
  • Finnish
  • Canadian French
  • French
  • Hebrew
  • Italian
  • Norwegian
  • Dutch (Nederlands)
  • Norwegian (Nynorsk)
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Swedish
  • Chinese – Simplified
  • Chinese – Traditional

If you are not able to find your native language in the above list, contact our Support Team and we will provide you the translation of the plugin in your native language.

Also, the plugin can be easily translated to any language using simple string translation using the translation files.

WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments plugin can be easily translated with the help of online tools like POEdit. All you need to do is visit the bookings plugin folder and open folder i18n. Select the .pot file and open it using POEdit.


bookings translation


Click on Create New Translation, and select the language for which you to translate the content of your website.


Select language


Provide the string translation for the selected language and Save the file.

Translation


Once the translation file is created, you will get two files with extensions .po and .mo. Save these files in the i18n folder of the plugin and install the plugin.

**NOTE:
Once the translated files are saved in the plugin, contact our support team with the Translation Files. This way we will be able to add the translation files to future versions of the plugin. 


Final Thoughts…

Going for a multilingual website is a great way to boost your sales across the globe. Similarly, it becomes easier to engage with customers in their languages. Hence, if you are planning to set up an online booking system keeping in mind the linguistic preferences of your customers, this article can be really helpful to you.

In case you face any issues with the setup of your online booking website, please feel free to contact our Booking Experts. We will be happy to help you out.