How it works
Alva Digital Downloads reads the language each buyer used at checkout, which Shopify records on the order. If you have added a translation for that language, the download email uses your translated text. If you haven't, the buyer gets your default template. Translations change the text only: colours, logo and layout always come from your default template.
Add a language
Translations of your global email template work on every plan, including Free. Each language you add has its own copy of the email's text.
1. Open the email template
In the Alva admin, go to Settings and click Edit Email Template. Above the editor is a Language list. It starts on Default, which is the template you already have.
2. Add a language
In the Add language list, choose a language and click Add. You can add any of the 35 languages the Alva admin is available in. The new language opens straight away and appears in the Language list.
3. Type your translation
The editor now shows only the text fields: the subject, From name, title, message, button text and footer, plus the headings and texts used for links and license keys. An empty field shows your default text as a placeholder, with the note Not translated — the default text is used. Leave a field blank to keep your default text for it.
Variables such as {customer.first_name} and {order.number} work the same way in every language. The preview on the page shows the order details in English; the email itself shows them in the buyer's language.
4. Save
Click Save in the save bar. From then on, buyers who check out in that language receive your translated email. To edit another language, pick it from the Language list; to change colours, the logo or the layout, switch back to Default.
To stop using a language, open it and click Remove language. Buyers in that language then receive your default template again. Adding and removing languages is unavailable while the page has unsaved changes.
Translate a product's custom email
A product with its own custom email has the same Language controls. Open the product in Alva, click Customize Email in its Email Template card, and add languages exactly as above. Product custom emails, and so their translations, are available on paid plans.
A product needs a custom email before you can add languages to it. If it still uses your global template, click Create Custom Email first. Like the custom email itself, a product's translation is used when that product is the only digital product in the order.
Send a test email in a language
Choose a language in the Language list and click Send test email. Alva Digital Downloads sends the saved version of that language to your store's email address, filled with sample order details, and the confirmation shows the address it went to. Save your changes first: the button is unavailable while the page has unsaved changes.
Which language each buyer gets
Alva Digital Downloads takes the buyer's checkout language from the order and looks for a translation you have added for it. If there is none, the buyer receives your default template. A few languages follow extra rules:
- Regional variants share a translation. A buyer who checks out in Mexican Spanish gets your Spanish translation, and a buyer in British English gets your English one.
- Portuguese buyers get the closest Portuguese you have added. If you have added only Brazilian Portuguese, buyers from Portugal receive it too, and the other way round.
- Simplified and Traditional Chinese are kept separate. A buyer who checks out in one never receives the other, so add each one you want to serve.
- Norwegian Bokmål and Nynorsk cover each other. If you have added only one of them, buyers in the other receive it.
- Every other language gets your default template. That includes languages you haven't added and languages that aren't in the list.
There is no separate fallback language: your default template is the fallback for every language you haven't added. Write your default template in the language most of your buyers share. If you want everyone you haven't translated for to get English, write the default in English and add your own language as a translation.
Product translations and global translations together
For a product with a custom email, Alva Digital Downloads fills each text field from the most specific text it has in the buyer's language: the product's translation first, then your global translation, and only then the default text.
So a French buyer of a product whose custom email is translated only into German receives your global French text, not the product's untranslated text. The product's email page shows a reminder of this whenever you edit one of its languages.
What else switches language
When a translation is used, Alva Digital Downloads also writes its own parts of the email in that language: the order details in the footer, the order date, the stand-in name used when a buyer has no name on the order, the default subject and headings, the notes about license keys, and the Powered by Alva Digital Downloads line. Date metafield variables are written out in that language too.
That makes a language worth adding even if you type nothing. A store whose default template is already in Spanish can add Spanish with every field left blank: Spanish buyers keep the same text and get the order details and date in Spanish.
Good to know
- Only newer orders carry a language. Orders placed before multilingual emails were released have no checkout language recorded, so their emails, including resends, use your default template. Resending the email for a newer order uses the buyer's language again.
- Point of Sale orders use the language of the POS device. A walk-in buyer doesn't choose a language at the till, so the email follows the language of the device that took the sale.
- Imported orders and API-assigned downloads get the default template. Orders brought in by an import and downloads assigned through the Alva Digital Downloads API carry no language.
- Your languages reach the other buyer emails too. The license-key emails, the delayed-download and under-review notices, and the emails for personalized products follow a language you have added, using your translated text wherever they share it with the download email. For a personalized product, click Translate this email in its Order received email block to translate that email's own text.
- The license-key, delayed-download and under-review emails each have their own text too. Choose one in the Email list above the Language list to edit its subject, message and footer, in your default language or per language. A language you add there changes only that email.
- Removing a product's translation sends buyers in that language to your global translation for it, or to the default template if there is none.
- The order page shows the language. In the order's Email History, an email written in one of your languages carries a badge such as Language: Spanish, even when the send failed, and the order shows the buyer's Checkout Language when Shopify recorded one.
FAQ
Which language does the download email use?
The language the buyer used at checkout, if you have added a translation for it. Every other buyer receives your default template.
Do I need a paid plan to translate the download email?
No. Translations of the global email template work on every plan, including Free. Translating a product's custom email needs a paid plan, because product custom emails are a paid feature.
Does a translation change the email's design?
No. Translations cover the text only. Colours, logo and layout always come from your default template.
What happens if I add a language but leave every field blank?
Buyers in that language receive your default text, with the order details and the order date shown in their language. The language stays added until you remove it.
Can I choose a fallback language for buyers I haven't translated for?
No. Your default template is the fallback. Write it in the language most of your buyers share, and add translations for the others.
Why did a resend for an older order arrive in the default language?
Orders placed before multilingual emails were released have no checkout language recorded, so their emails always use the default template.
See also
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Last updated 2026-10-20