Today, we bring you real stories from real business owners, who run their businesses on Shopify using the Bilingual Shopify Theme.
Rather than focusing on numbers, design or code all the time, we love digging deeper: Finding out the real stories, trials, and tribulations of business owners. Here are some great stories from Sweden, Italy, and Germany.
Enter Store Owners.
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Jenny Smith – Babybug – Est. 3.5 Years [English & Swedish Shopify Store]
URL: www.babybug.me
The Beginnings
The idea to sew scarfs was born when my then 6-month old son started drooling. The meager supply of stylish scarves in the trade meant that I decided to sew my own for him. There was fabric left over, so I thought that surely there are others who miss fancy scarves.
Children grow, and the need for additional products have emerged over time.
Getting Bigger
The range now also include Children’s Hats, Headbands, Scarves, Shawls, Newborn Sets, Comfort Blankets, Baby Blankets and Bumper Bar Protection-Bugaboo.
Products made with care
We live in a beautiful cove in Ängelholm and it is also where I sew many of the products. Some of the products are sewn by a Norwegian company in Estonia. The manufacturer is controlled and has no child labor.
I started the company and webshop in March 2010 and since then I have also been involved in various markets and fairs. Since the start, I have sold and shipped products to countries including the USA, Australia, Italy, and Sweden.
See Jenny’s store here > https://www.babybug.se/
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Dawn Jesse – HumBird (HumBird Design Quality Creations) – Est. 2012 [English & German Shopify Store]
URL: www.humbird.de
The Story
The idea to open a business with my mom began forming in 2011, but it took us a year to decide that we should base the business on what we do: sew.
I am not sure if we chose the business or if the business chose us.
We have just begun – the site is relatively new – so it is hard to say how it has impacted my life. I can say for sure that every conversation is now a potential business contact and I am always looking for ways to promote my business.
How Did You Create Your Bilingual Store?
I researched everything I could find. I tried a month of an eBay store but there are fees for everything and I just decided it wasn’t for me.
I looked at Etsy but that is not very popular here in Germany. I also looked at opening a store through pair networks and while their customer service is awesome, it is a very expensive route to go and I would have needed to hire a professional.
I also looked at opening 2 different stores, one German and one English, but as I am selling handmade items (so very limited quality) and the fees for managing inventory between two websites are outstanding (cheapest I found was around 25/month).
In the end, I chose the Bilingual Shopify Theme to build my store.
See Dawn’s store over here > https://humbird.de/
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Lorenzo Andrioli – Pannobarbaro – Est. 1-month [English & Italian Shopify Store]
URL: www.pannobarbaro.com
The Story
Pannobarbaro was born during 2013 in Verona, Italy, to create T-shirts by using embroidery for each graphic. The combination between embroidery’s antiquity and T-shirt’s modernity inspired the 1285 collection.
My story starts at the end of 2012, when the idea of “I want to try my own road! ” prevailed.
At that time I was working for an important corporation, rich in career chances: as well as a beautiful city, there was all type of comforts, and the daily life passed in a quiet frenzy. However, the golden borders of that city started to be tight to me.
I felt the need to reinvent a very simple clothing such as T-shirts, an apparel with so many graphics and styles, but almost exclusively made by printing.
After a lot of attempts, the 1285 collection was born, and it linked the modernity of a T-shirt to the old technique of embroidery, the first technique used to decorate clothes in the past. The contrast is wakened by a stylized drawing technique recalling the old medieval painting art, where modern elements appear as built in an ancient past.
How did ancient guys build a surf table in the XIII century? And a motorcycle? And an airplane? But above all, couldn’t they be quiet and use vehicles of that age? The basic idea is to demolish barriers, to overtake our limits, only to find out the pleasure to go beyond them.
How did you do your store in two languages?
The Bilingual Shopify Theme helped me because Shopify doesn’t provide its own bilingual option. I wanted to join the usability of Shopify’s platform with the opportunity to communicate in my language also. This was my first bilingual site.
See Lorenzo’s store here > https://www.pannobarbaro.com/
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Honorable Mentions – Other Language Combinations on Shopify
- Portuguese & Spanish – Hidraulicart – hidraulicart.com/
- Vietnamese & English – Ekoko Handmade – www.ekoko-handmade.com
- Italian & English – Pasta Store – www.pastastore.it
- Chinese & English – Surge Art – www.surgeart.com
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We’re honored to have heard about such inspiring business stories — especially multilingual stories! — so many thanks to the good folks who shared their successes above.
Need more inspiration? See:
- Beautiful Bilingual Shopify Stores or
- Our collection of Bilingual Shopify Stores from real business owners.
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Thank you for keeping up to date with our Shopify Insider Blog @ Blackbelt Commerce. Please make sure to check out our services. We also have some top blog recommendations for you to check out; Shopify Email Templates , what is the best strategy for a good e-commerce store, the importance of e-commerce in modern business, and New Design. Keep a lookout for new blog posts.
Questions about these businesses, or bilingual Shopify in general? We’ll be doing Q&A in the comments.
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