Update a Non-English shop with Shop Uploader

This page explains the important considerations for international shops.

Danger: You could lose data

❌ Bad example (don’t do this)

I export titles for my German shop, but I don’t export translations.

The exported data will look like this:

title = "My listing title 1"
title = "My listing title 2"
title = "My listing title 3"

On Etsy, the titles look like this:

title = "Titel meines Eintrags 1"
title = "Titel meines Eintrags 2"
title = "Titel meines Eintrags 3"

On Etsy, there are English translations at the bottom of each listing.

However, because I didn’t export my translations, Etsy only exported the English-translated titles not my original German titles.

If I upload my spreadsheet like this, Etsy will delete my original German titles and descriptions.

✅ Good example (always do this)

The solution is to always export translations.

Exporting titles and translations, my export data looks like this:

title = "Titel meines Eintrags 1"
title = "Titel meines Eintrags 2"
title = "Titel meines Eintrags 3"
...
en_title = "My listing title 1"
en_title = "My listing title 2"
en_title = "My listing title 3"

The English translations are stored at the end of the spreadsheet and my German titles and descriptions will be in the primary title and description column.

This upload will work as intended.

Etsy’s primary language is always English

Etsy is English by default.

However, it goes beyond the simple user-facing experience. Etsy also applies this to the API. All data returned from the Etsy API is English by default.

This is very important for shops where the primary language is not English.

When an application requests the title information for your shop, Etsy’s API will always return the English translation.

Etsy stores the data for your primary language, for instance German, in the German translation. And Etsy will store the English translation as the default title.

Check out the next section for the solution.

How to export Non-English shops

Short answer

Always export translations when exporting titles, descriptions, or tags.

Longer answer

Shop Uploader will swap the data around so that everything looks normal.

Your title and description will be in your primary language and the English version will be a translation at the end of the template (en_title, en_description).

However, this can only happen if you export your translations.

Always export translations when exporting titles, descriptions, or tags.