Best Practices for E-commerce Translation

One of the world’s most renowned publication houses issued a report back in 2019 claiming that B2B businesses have surpassed the benchmark of $1trillion dollars. This may have come as a surprise to many people since nobody expects any industry to exceed the one trillion-dollar cap. The element which has made such a staggering impact in terms of the revenue generated is not related to the traditional brick and mortar industry. Rather the credit goes to eCommerce sales vis-a-vis online and website marketplace.

When businesses around the world fathom the notion that the only way to expand to global marketplaces is to localize your website or eCommerce business into the language of the region you are penetrating into, the demand for website translation services increases exponentially.

It is one thing to know the value of eCommerce translation services, but it’s entirely another phenomenon to choose the best agency. When companies decide to go for a full-fledged localization strategy, the convolutions related to localization escalate. Thereby, the need to opt for an efficient and effective method of keeping the entire translation process on track augments.

In this article, we will review some of the best practices that businesses can adopt pertaining to Ecommerce Translations;

1. Translating Your Ecommerce Store’s Language

Until and unless you mold the translated content as per the needs of your client’s business, your eCommerce localization strategy will remain ineffective. Because it’s imperative to conceptualize that your translated content might not be able to hit the cultural intricacies of the local language of the region.

This narrates an important aspect here. Word by word translations will not always work if you do not inculcate the idiomatic meanings of the language into the content. Thereby, you not only need professional translators but also native language experts that can deliver the content as it was written for the target audience.

2. Payment Methods

No matter how many times people claim that they do not care about money, it won’t negate the notion that business relationships suffer due to ineffective payment methods. Especially, when it comes to eCommerce businesses, where the majority of transactions are done beyond borders vis-a-vis different currencies and non-overlapping banking hours. Such complications not only jeopardize future customer relations but also spoil the reputation of the organization. And if the reputation of the firm blemishes, the consumers will naturally hesitate to buy your services.  Therefore, you need to make the purchasing and payment methods so easy and simple that consumers find no complications thereof.

3. Invest Meticulously

 Your needs can now be met with various translation products that are readily available in the market. Hence, you can invest in your personal lexicon of management tools if your organization is translating documents every now and then. This investment will help you in the long run. You will not only be able to ensure consistency but will also strengthen your brand image. Moreover, the majority of your investment should go into the R&D of your target audience. For instance, if you decide to enter into the Chinese market, you should issue some of your resources and investigate the particular intricacies of the market. Then choose the best medium or method to communicate with the local people. This initiative will have both short and long-term benefits.

4. Abiding by Local Laws

The process of localization is not as straightforward as it seems. There are a lot of impending issues that you have to take into consideration. One of these issues is to adhere to international laws. You can create content in multiple languages, but if you are not aware of the local laws and regulations of the market you are trying to penetrate, you might lose your business license. The significant tenet over here is to conceptualize that policies and laws vary from country to country. Hence, there is no one universal policy that you can adhere to. Yes, there is an international law procedure. But it is not enforceable in any state. You have to strictly work within the legal constraints of the local laws of the region. Because if you don’t, it might lead to burly fines.

5. The Importance of Transcreation

A lot of businesses that opt for a localization strategy, do not take into consideration a very important fact, and i.e., the importance of transcreation. Frequently, people use the terms, ‘Translation’ and ‘Transcreation’ interchangeably. But they are far from being similar. The translation is just a word-to-word depiction of what the original text is trying to state. It might not inculcate the tone, style, or reference of the local language.

On the other hand, Transcraeation is what creates that difference. It ensures that the translated text contains all the idiomatic phrases, intentions, tones, and double meanings of phrases. If you do not give this aspect any consideration then your brand message might not be able to create the same impact that it initially did with the original text.

Conclusion

In the article, we tried our best to help eCommerce businesses understand the important practices that they must adapt if they want to succeed in the competitive global market of e-commerce businesses. The crucial point here is to understand that eCommerce success is only guaranteed if you are creating a harmonious experience for your consumers. The better the user experience, the more your e-commerce website will flourish.

Try to ensure that the customer should experience the least amount of effort while surfing through your website. Endeavor to be organic, genuine, simple, and to the point. This same rhetoric should be carried to your translated text. It should be easy to understand. Meanwhile, the text, tones, style, and idiomatic meanings of the language should be kept intact.

Moreover, try to keep a tight deadline if you want to penetrate a new but existing foreign market. Delaying the process will only disrupt your budget. Hence, to save yourself from all this hassle, try to avail the help of well-renowned eCommerce Translation services or any other translation agency that can guide you along the way.