How to Localize Your E‑Commerce Store for Japan with SiteLocaleAI
Expanding into Japan can be a game‑changer for any online retailer, but it requires more than a simple translation. Japanese shoppers expect prices in JPY, often rounded to psychologically appealing numbers (e.g., ¥1,980 instead of ¥1,970). In this tutorial we’ll walk through the entire workflow using SiteLocaleAI’s self‑hosted JavaScript library, the CLI for SEO pre‑rendering, and the WordPress plugin for non‑Node environments.
1. Install the Library
SiteLocaleAI is framework‑agnostic, so you can drop it into any site – React, Vue, plain HTML, or WordPress. For a typical static HTML page, add the CDN script and initialise the library:
<script src="https://cdn.sitelocaleai.com/v1/site-locale.js"></script>
<script>
const locale = new SiteLocale({
apiKey: "YOUR_CLAUDE_API_KEY",
targetLang: "ja",
priceConfig: {
currency: "JPY",
rounding: "psychological"
}
});
locale.init();
</script>
Replace YOUR_CLAUDE_API_KEY with the key for the LLM you prefer (Claude, GPT‑4o‑mini, etc.). The priceConfig tells SiteLocaleAI to convert every price it encounters to yen and apply psychological rounding – a technique that ends numbers with 0, 8, or 9 to feel cheaper.
2. Tag Your Prices for Automatic Conversion
SiteLocaleAI scans the DOM for elements that contain a data-price attribute. Wrap each price in a span and store the base amount in USD (or your source currency). The library will replace the content with the localized yen amount.
<span class="price" data-price="49.99">$49.99</span>
When the script runs, the above element becomes something like:
<span class="price" data-price="49.99">¥5,480</span>
The rounding algorithm first converts the USD amount to JPY using the latest exchange rate (fetched via the LLM) and then adjusts the final digits to the nearest "charm" number (e.g., ¥5,480 → ¥5,480, ¥5,490, or ¥5,499 depending on the price range).
3. Translate Text Content
SiteLocaleAI also translates any element that contains the data-translate attribute. For product titles, descriptions, and UI strings, simply add the attribute:
<h1 data-translate="product-title">Elegant Leather Wallet</h1>
<p data-translate="product-description">Hand‑stitched from premium full‑grain leather.</p>
The library sends these strings to your chosen LLM, receives Japanese translations, and swaps the innerHTML in place. Because the translation happens client‑side, you keep full control of the API key and avoid third‑party data leakage.
4. SEO‑Friendly Pre‑Rendering with the CLI
Search engines still struggle with client‑side rendering, especially for non‑Latin scripts. SiteLocaleAI ships a CLI that pre‑renders translated pages as static HTML files, which you can serve to crawlers.
npx site-locale-cli pre-render --lang ja --output ./public/ja
The command:
1. Crawls your site, fetching every route.
2. Runs the same translation & price‑localisation pipeline on the server.
3. Writes fully translated HTML files to ./public/ja.
Deploy the generated folder to your CDN or static host. Google and Bing will now index the Japanese version as if you had built it manually.
Tip: Add a
hreflangtag to each page’s<head>so search engines know the language version:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ja" href="https://example.com/ja/" />
5. WordPress Integration (No Node Required)
If your store runs on WordPress, you can skip the manual script injection and use the official SiteLocaleAI plugin:
1. Install the plugin from the WordPress admin.
2. In the plugin settings, paste your LLM API key and select Japanese (ja) as the target language.
3. Enable Price Localisation and choose Psychological Rounding.
4. Add the shortcode [site_locale_price amount="49.99"] wherever you display a price.
The plugin handles the script loading, attribute insertion, and SEO pre‑rendering behind the scenes, letting you focus on product data.
6. Verify the Result
After deployment, run a quick audit:
- Open a product page with ?lang=ja (or the pre‑rendered URL).
- Confirm that every price ends with 0, 8, or 9 (e.g., ¥5,480, ¥12,998).
- Use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to see how Google renders the Japanese page.
If something looks off, check the console for errors – the library logs any failed LLM calls with a helpful stack trace.
7. Next Steps & Pricing
SiteLocaleAI offers four plans that scale with your traffic and feature needs:
- Indie – $5/mo – 10 k tokens, basic translation.
- Starter – $49/mo – 100 k tokens, SEO CLI, price rounding.
- Growth – $99/mo – 500 k tokens, priority LLM access.
- Enterprise – $249/mo – Unlimited tokens, SLA, dedicated support.
For a small boutique expanding to Japan, the Starter plan is usually enough. You get the CLI for pre‑rendering and the psychological rounding algorithm out of the box.
8. Wrap‑Up
By following these steps you’ve turned a generic e‑commerce site into a Japan‑ready storefront:
- Instant translation of UI and product copy.
- Localized pricing that feels natural to Japanese shoppers.
- SEO‑friendly static pages that search engines can crawl.
All of this runs on your own infrastructure, keeping API keys secure and costs predictable.
Ready to launch your Japanese store? Try SiteLocaleAI today and see how easy it is to translate, price‑localise, and rank in Japan. Visit the quick‑start guide or explore the price localisation docs for deeper details.