Have you ever left an online store because it lacked your preferred language version?
You wouldn’t be alone.
An average of 20% of customers feels uneasy and prefers not to buy when their language is missing. For some markets this number is much higher, with 41% Japanese customers and 36% of South Korean customers claiming the lack of their language version is the main reason for not buying cross-border.
You don’t want to lose clients like that.
In ecommerce in particular, translation is a business enabler. Well thought-out eCommerce translations can significantly increase the effectiveness of your sales in foreign markets, due to the use of the target language. Let’s take a closer look at all types of translation projects involved in ecommerce:
Translating product cards
When desiging and translating product cards we must take both the needs of customers and of crawlers into account. Finding the right balance between both is one of the key challenges of product card design. Product descriptions in new languages must also cater for the needs of SEO. Different rules apply for external search engines than for internal search within popular marketplace platforms. Experienced translators and copywriters can also optimise your product descriptions in terms of voice search.
Look out for consistency issues. They can make internal search and filtering ineffective.
Translating navigation and reviews
Content adaptation
In ecommerce, translation must be seen as part of the eCommerce localization process. Each market is slightly different and therefore deliveries, payments, returns, data protection are subject to changes when moving from market to market. Contracts and regulations, including those required by the authorities cannot be simply translated. The original content must be adjusted to the reality of the new market. We call this content adaptation.
Multilingual SEO: keyword research
Multilingual keyword research is at the heart of multilingual SEO. Everything, from product descriptions, to support articles, to ads, is based on keywords. Keywords cannot be translated as search patterns and habits differ. That is why we research keywords for each market separately.
Ads translation
Ads translation may seem like a simple copywriting task but it is an ongoing process including following guidelines, testing and a lot of know-how acquired along the way. It is very important (though often overlooked) that keeping online ads consistent with your SEO keywords lowers ad prices. Once again: keyword research for each new language and market should be one of your first steps.
Translating automated marketing
If your ecommerce operates at scale you surely have automated marketing solutions in place. The content you share with your customers should be adjusted to each market. Often adaptation, transcreation or copywriting the content from scratch is the best solution for your ecommerce business. Read more about services for marketing in our separate article.
Customer care translation
Customers have questions before they buy and after they buy your products.
Customers also have issues. Do you know that poorly translated product description may result in a higher returns rate?
The concept of the sales funnel is slowly being replaced by the sales flywheel. The main difference between the two approaches is that the sales flywheel also incorporates customer care as an important factor in satisfactory sales levels.
Customer care has huge impact on customer retention and, particularly in the self-service approach, translating customer care articles well is crucial for successful troubleshooting.
Professional translation for your needs
Learn more about our industry-specific services:
Translation Services for the Fahion Industry