Selling
French for Quebec (Bill 96)
See what a shopper reading your store in French still sees in English, fix each item from one list, and draft French product names and descriptions automatically for you to review and approve.
Overview
Catalog → French for Québec lists everything a shopper reading your store in French would still see in English, with a link to fix each item. It also drafts French names and descriptions for your products automatically. A draft is only a suggestion: nothing reaches your store until you read it and approve it.
It is on every plan, and it is worked out again each time you open the page.
This is information, not legal advice. The summary below is there to help you find your way. Check what applies to your business with the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) or a lawyer.
What Québec asks for, in short
Québec's Charter of the French Language was amended by Bill 96, the Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, passed on 1 June 2022. Most of its changes took effect that day; others came later, the last ones for businesses on 1 June 2025. The OQLF is the body that explains and enforces it.
- Customers may be informed and served in French, before, during and after a sale. The OQLF names websites, social media, catalogues and invoices for online purchases among what this covers (the OQLF on customers' rights).
- Product text must be in French. Everything written on a product, its container or packaging, and the documents that come with it (instructions, warranty certificates) must be in French. Another language may appear beside it, but not more prominently, and the French must not be harder to get to.
- Contracts of adhesion must be given in French first. These are contracts whose terms the customer cannot negotiate. Since 1 June 2023 the French version must be handed over first; the customer may then choose to be bound in another language (the OQLF on contracts of adhesion). Ask the OQLF or a lawyer whether your terms of sale are one.
- Trademarks on products, since 1 June 2025. A recognised trademark (registered with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, or established by use) may appear on a product only in another language. If a French version of the mark is registered, it must appear. The generic and descriptive words in a mark (what the product is, its colour, scent, flavour, ingredients or features) must now also appear in French on the product or on something permanently attached to it. The product's brand name and the business name may stay as they are. Products made before 1 June 2025 may be sold under the old rule until 1 June 2027, on conditions the OQLF lists (the OQLF on trademarks on products).
BestWebby shows its own storefront text, checkout and shopper emails in French for you (see Selling in French). Your product text, pages, policies and your own email wording are yours to translate, and that is what this page helps with.
The French readiness check
Open Catalog → French for Québec. The cards at the top show how many items are in English only, how many products are missing French, how many drafts are waiting for you, and how many labels to check by eye.
| What | Counted as missing French when | Where to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Products | An active product has no French name, or has a description and no French description. | Click the product: its Translations section opens on French. Or draft it automatically (below). |
| Collections | An active collection has no French name, or has a description and no French one. | Click Add French next to it, on the same page. |
| Pages | A published page is not in French and no French page answers on the same address. | Your site's Pages: publish a French version with its language set to French. |
| Policies | Your privacy, refund, terms or shipping policy has no French version, or you have not published your own and the store shows BestWebby's default, which is in English. | Your site's Pages: publish your own policy page in French. |
| Your own email wording | You replaced BestWebby's wording for an email and wrote no French version, so French-speaking shoppers get yours as written. | Settings → Email design: add a French version. |
Two more lists show text that has no French version at all and is shown to every shopper exactly as you typed it: your product category labels and the links in your own menus. The page cannot tell which language you typed them in, so they are not counted as English only; read them and reword them if they should be in French. A store using the default menu has it translated for you.
At the bottom, Already in French for you lists what BestWebby translates itself.
Draft a French translation
- Under Products, tick up to five products and click Draft a French translation, or click Draft French for all missing to work through every active product still missing French, a few at a time. Stop ends the run; drafts already made are kept.
- Each draft appears under Drafts to review, beside your current wording. Only the fields still missing French are drafted: a name or description you translated yourself is never drafted over.
- Change anything you like in the boxes, then click Approve and publish. The French name and description go on your store straight away, exactly as they are in the boxes. Dismiss throws the draft away and publishes nothing.
- To approve several at once, tick I have read this draft on each and click Approve ticked. A draft you have edited is approved on its own, so your edits are what is published.
How drafts are written:
- Brand names stay as they are. The product's brand, your business name, anything marked ™ or ®, names with a capital in the middle (such as BestSoap) and model numbers (such as X200) are kept exactly as written. The words around them, such as what the product is, its colour or scent, are translated, which is what the 2025 trademark rule asks for. If a draft has changed one of those names, the draft says Check these names.
- Canadian French, as written in Québec, keeping your formatting, numbers, sizes and prices, and adding nothing that is not in your original.
- Each product drafted uses one of your plan's daily automatic drafts, the same allowance as the other automatic writing in BestWebby. The page shows how many you have used today. When they run out, drafting stops and what was already drafted is kept; try again the next day.
- If your product's name or description changes after it was drafted, the draft says so and its button reads Approve anyway: check the French still matches first. Such drafts are left out of Approve ticked.
Approving does the same as typing the French yourself into the product's Translations section; you can change it there later. A product's French web address is not drafted: set it in the same section if you want one.
Good to know
- Only active products are counted, up to your first 10,000.
- If your store opens in French (its language is set to
fr-CAunder Channels → Sites), the page says so: French shoppers then see your original wording wherever there is no separate French version, so if you wrote it in French there is nothing to do for it. - Home → Shop health shows the same English-only count on its own card, with a link here. It does not change your score.
- Who may use it: everyone who can see products can see the check; drafting, approving and dismissing need permission to edit products. Every draft made, approved or dismissed is recorded in the Audit log.