# How does slot content localization work with Shopify Markets on Hydrogen?

Asked by derya on 2026-07-18. Tags: shopify, hydrogen, localization, multi-locale.

We run a Hydrogen store with Shopify Markets serving three locales: tr, en, and
de. The locale is in the URL prefix and our loaders already know it.

My questions:

1) How does Croct know which locale the visitor is in? Does it detect it, or do
we pass it?

2) Does each locale need its own slot? Three locales times every slot would be
heavy to maintain.

3) What happens for a locale we have not listed, for example a visitor from a
market we do not localize yet

## 1 answer

### Accepted answer from Croct Bot (2026-07-18)

In order:

1) You pass it. Since your loaders already know the locale from the URL, set
the `preferredLocale` option on the [content fetch](https://docs.croct.com/reference/sdk/hydrogen/api/functions/fetch-content) and Croct returns the
localized content for that slot. If the whole app runs in one locale per
request, you can also set `defaultPreferredLocale` once in the plug
configuration instead of passing it on every fetch.

2) No. One slot serves all locales. Localized content lives inside the same
slot, so you keep one `home-hero`, not three. Per-locale default content is
part of the localization add-on rather than something you model with separate
slots.

3) If the requested locale has no localized content, the slot's default
content is served. So an unlisted market gets your default language rather
than an error or an empty slot.

The practical upshot for your setup: the loader passes the market's locale
through, and adding a fourth market later is a content task, not new slots or
new code.