Voice and tone

What are voice and tone?

Shopify’s voice is a reflection of who we are. We should always sound like Shopify.

At the same time, some aspects of our personality might be more or less apparent, depending on the audience and their context. That’s tone.

Shopify’s voice

Our voice is a reflection of who we are. So who are we?

Simply put, we’re a company, built by real people who understand this business and care about helping others succeed.

That should be clear every time someone uses our products or services.

Most often, we show this through well-crafted tools that help people get their jobs done efficiently. But there are times when our personalities and perspectives should be more apparent. In those times, we should adapt our tone to respond to people in an appropriate and meaningful way.

You'll find more specific guidelines on how to adapt your tone to different situations in this guide.

Voice guidelines

As Shopify’s voice, we should always:

Be real, but not too tough or overly familiar

• Use business casual language—be plain-spoken, not pretentious or overly playful
• Be upfront and honest with merchants, even if we make a mistake
• Communicate with clarity and empathy—be direct, not insensitive

Be proactive, but not needy or pushy

• Offer merchants sincere encouragement and practical advice
• Clearly explain how merchants are impacted when something goes wrong, but don’t overexplain with redundant content

Be dynamic, but not scattered or impulsive

• Communicate in a way that respects merchant emotion and context
• Avoid words that generalize success like “every,” “all,” and “most”
• Use language that supports action, movement, and progress

Guide, but don’t handhold or prescribe

• Use expertise to help merchants succeed; don’t talk down to them
• Be specific when explaining benefits without making things sound better than they are
• Teach people the “why” and “how” behind actions—don’t just tell them to do something

Adapting tone by situation

Our tone adapts to the context. We’ll use certain voice attributes more or less based on the situation.

Often people frame tone guidance around adapting to the emotional state of the audience. The reality is we never know a person’s emotional state. Even when things seem the most positive, we can’t be sure.

While it’s helpful to consider how your audience is likely to feel, don’t assume or tell them how to feel. Instead, focus on the specifics of the situation and less on the emotions. Here are some of the most common situations to consider.

Everyday tasks and activities

When everything is working as it should, our goal is to give people what they need to get work done, without getting in the way or drawing attention to ourselves. We want the audience to know what something is or that something has happened as expected.

Do

Look for the simplest way to communicate information—words aren’t always necessary.

Don't

Use overly complicated or intimidating language.

Do

Be consistent for identical actions or destinations when possible.

• Delete product
• Delete collection

Don't

Add extra text just to fill space.

Learning and education

Sometimes it helps to give more explanation or education. In these situations, we want to make sure people feel confident in their actions and in our capabilities.

Some people will want to be guided step-by-step through the process, while others may just want to try it out and learn on their own. Look for ways to give them both options.

Remember, they may have sought this out specifically or we may have recommended it to them, so don’t assume that they want or need to use it.

Do

Help people understand why they should do something, not just how.

Don't

Oversell or overpromise.

Create a new campaign and you could double your sales this holiday season.

Do

Break down complicated tasks into steps that help people focus on one thing at a time.

Don't

Be overly prescriptive about how someone should use a feature.

You need to add at least 10 products before opening your store.

Simple errors

While we do our best to be proactive and protect against unexpected events, they still happen. These are often simple mistakes or roadblocks to action that can easily be fixed. Although they aren’t necessarily errors or problems, they can feel that way at first.

In this case, our job is to help people understand what happened so that they can get back to work as quickly as possible

Read the error message guidelines for more detailed guidance.

Do

Look for ways to help people resolve problems automatically.

Don't

Use error numbers or code unless they’re easily recognizable by people and help them solve the problem.

Acknowledging effort, progress, or completion

There are situations where we want to acknowledge that someone completed a complex activity or difficult task.

While we don’t need to celebrate the accomplishment, we should recognize that they put in the time and effort. Depending on the level of effort, these may be simple confirmations or more active recognition that they completed something difficult.

Motivate or encourage action

These are situations when we want to keep people moving along a desired path. In most cases, we do that with direct information and clear steps to encourage action.

We don’t want to be too overzealous or action-driven here—it’s more about helping people understand the next step and giving them the context they need to take it.

Serious problems or errors

There are times when we need to share bad news. This might be an outage or an error, or it may be a product that we’re no longer supporting. These are hopefully rare situations, but they will happen.

In this case, there’s a serious risk of damaging trust and hurting our relationship with the audience, so we should be very careful about how we communicate.

Read the error message guidelines for more detailed guidance.

Announcing new features and updates

It’s exciting to launch a new feature or update, but always consider the audience’s perspective first. While we may be excited about the benefits and capabilities, change can be intimidating or annoying for users.

When you’re announcing something new, focus on educating and explaining what it is, what it’s used for, and what the user can expect.

Do

If possible, let users dismiss announcements or postpone changes until they’re ready.

Celebrations and congratulations

There are occasionally times when we want to celebrate an event or milestone, or to congratulate someone for an important accomplishment. In reality, this should be one of the least common situations we encounter.

Let audiences know that we understand that it’s an important moment and we’re excited for them, but be careful not to take credit for it. Even if we played a role in their success, this isn’t about us.

Remember, this is about celebrating their accomplishments, not ours. Launching something new? You probably don’t need to celebrate with them. Read our guidance around announcing new features and updates.