Regional Variants
Regional variants let you create different versions of an announcement bar for different Shopify markets and languages. A visitor in Japan sees a Japanese version, a visitor in France sees a French version, and everyone else sees your original. This feature is available on the Starter plan and above.
Why Use Regional Variants
A single message rarely works for every audience. Regional variants let you:
Translate announcement text into different languages.
Tailor promotions to specific markets (different sale dates, shipping terms, or product availability).
Combine both – show market-specific content in the visitor’s language.
Variant Types
There are three types of regional variants, listed from broadest to most specific:
Type | Targets | Example |
Market-specific | Visitors in a particular Shopify market | “Free shipping across Europe” for the EU market |
Language-specific | Visitors browsing in a particular language | French translation for all French-speaking visitors |
Market + Language | Visitors in a specific market AND language | French content specifically for the France market |
How Precedence Works
When a visitor loads your store, Announcer picks the most specific matching variant:
Market + Language – Checked first. If a variant matches both the visitor’s market and language, it is shown.
Language-only – Checked next. If a variant matches the visitor’s language (regardless of market), it is shown.
Market-only – Checked next. If a variant matches the visitor’s market (regardless of language), it is shown.
Original – If no variant matches, the original announcement is shown as a fallback.
Example: You have an announcement with these variants:
Original: “Free shipping on orders over $50”
France market variant: “Livraison gratuite en France”
French language variant: “Livraison gratuite pour les commandes de plus de 50$”
France + French variant: “Livraison gratuite en France pour toute commande”
A visitor in France browsing in French sees the France + French variant. A visitor in Canada browsing in French sees the French language variant. A visitor in France browsing in English sees the France market variant. Everyone else sees the original.
Creating a Regional Variant
Open an existing announcement bar from your list to reach its detail page.
Under Manage this bar, click Regional variants.
Click Add regional variant.
Give the variant a name so you can recognise it later, such as “French Market”.
Pick a Target Market, a Language, or both. Each one defaults to “All”, so leaving a dropdown alone means the variant is not narrowed by that dimension – that is how you get a market-only, language-only, or market-and-language variant. Markets that already have a variant are shown but not selectable.
Optionally copy messages from the original to use as a starting point.
Create the variant, then customize its messages, links, countdown settings, and styling.
What Each Variant Controls
Each regional variant has its own independent settings for:
Messages (text and rotating messages)
Link URL and link style
Countdown timer settings
Expired message text
The variant inherits the visual style (colors, fonts, position) from the original announcement unless overridden.
Tips:
Start with your largest audiences. Check your Shopify analytics to see which markets and languages drive the most traffic, then create variants for those first.
Use the copy feature. When creating a variant, copy from the original so you only need to translate or adjust rather than start from scratch.
Test your variants. Use Shopify’s market and language preview tools to verify each variant displays correctly.