Getting ahead of the competition with online sales for your e-commerce venture is always a moving target. SEO tips, email lists, A/B testing, loyalty programs- the list goes on! But one frequently overlooked tool to help expand your target audience is e-commerce translation. Sure, there’s numerous plug-ins that can help automatically translate your website into other languages, but the results are far from optimal, and sometimes laughable in their attempt. The benefit of using an e-commerce translation agency like TSI is we have actual native speaking translators who understand the intricacies of online sales. Here’s a short list of 5 tips on how to increase product sales internationally. Find International Target Markets There’s many great ways find a market beyond the United States. You can use government resources to help suss out overseas trends. Websites like www.export.gov are a wonderful resource. Using keyword searches like www.kwfinder.com and setting search parameters to other countries is also an excellent method of finding untapped buyers. Translate Your Current Website When clients come to us for translation help, very few think to offer multiple language options on their website for international customers, but after discussing the benefits, most opt-in for this service. A frequent question we get is “why not just use the google translate website option?” The problem is google translate is far from accurate. Thousands of words have numerous definitions which can completely change the meaning of your sentences if not translated properly- this is the main issue with computer and machine translations. When we are asked to translate an e-commerce website, we only use native language speakers who understand the target country’s terminology so that there is no confusion for potential consumers. Create Custom Websites and URLS for New Markets In addition to translating your e-commerce website, you can give your online presence an extra international boost by creating standalone websites in other languages. To take it even one step further, customize the website with your target country’s URL. For example, if your company website is www.bestproduct.com, consider purchasing www.bestproduct.it if you plan on selling in Italy. This way, in addition to translating your website copy, you can also optimize your keywords and SEO for the italian market as well. In addition to custom websites, consider joining already established online marketplaces that have decent traffic. Amazon has recently made a large push into numerous countries across the globe through their Amazon Global Selling (AGS) program. At TSI, we have experience translating for Amazon Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) and AGS. Add Additional International Payment Methods Offering numerous currency options for payment can help entice international customers to purchase your product. You can take it a step further and even add some of the more popular cryptocurrency options as payment as well. When adding new currencies, it’s important to understand localization of these numbers as well as your payment portal- another portion of e-commerce website translation. For example, the US and other countries list dates and times differently: month/day/year versus day/month/year. Little details like this left unfixed will give your potential buyer the impression that your company does not take them seriously. Localize Your Marketing Materials In addition to your website, there’s a plethora of additional platforms and methods of reaching consumers. Social media is a huge one, as are banner ads. We love helping our customers with punching up their ad copy into other languages through the use of transcreation. This form of localization can also be targeted to specific demographics or locations, therefore it’s essential to hire translators who know the lingo of your particular customer. What are you waiting for? Contact us for a free quote on how we can help your business expand abroad and reach customers across the pond. With our extensive experience and deep portfolio, we are here to offer your business all the translation services you require. At TSI, we take pride in our years of experience translating documents for Amazon sellers. In today’s online sales market, its nearly impossible for vendors to do business without utilizing Amazon’s selling platform. Many brands who attempt to sell exclusively through their own website wind up seeing their products listed on Amazon eventually via third parties sold as used, or sometimes even counterfeited goods. Amazon offers brand protection services to help deal with counterfeiting and copyright infringement which helps to an extent, but there’s other lesser known programs they offer that help sellers: to expand their business internationally.
We are referring to Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA), known to the consumer as Amazon Prime. By joining the Amazon FBA program as a seller, your items are shipped to consumers free of charge domestically. While the United States is by far Amazon’s largest marketplace, what about other territories? Depending on who is counting, there’s roughly 195 countries in the world. Amazon currently operates in almost two dozen markets throughout the world, so why limit yourself to just one? One huge hurdle is language. Product pages have very tactically written copy that helps describe the item for sale, but still generate top notch search engine results. Keywords and descriptions are essential to having your product seen in searches before your competitors. Navigating this world in let’s say, Japan, would be nearly impossible as an English speaking seller. Where do you even start with translating your item description? And what about keywords? To rely on computer translation software such as google translate will leave your listing in the dust, and also give consumers the impression that you’re not a serious seller or even worse, a scammer yourself. Because we have extensive experience at TSI working with Amazon FBA sellers, we can assist in solving these issues for you. This way, you can put your mind at ease as a seller and focus on the other important aspect of business like retaining your buy box, managing reviews, and analyzing your sales conversion rates. While Amazon Global Selling (AGS) helps you expand to other territories, they do not offer their own translation services. This is why it’s essential that you choose wisely when using third party translation providers. However, third party providers open up a new can of worms. It’s no secret that Amazon has been plagued by seller scams and buy box wars between mom and pop sellers based in America who are now battling Chinese factories that are undercutting prices to unrealistically low levels. A similar predicament exists in the translation and localization industry. Dozens of low cost translation companies have been popping up in China and India offering unbeatable rates. But as the old idiom goes, it’s too good to be true. The quality of these translations are subpar. They are able to hit such low costs per word by employing computer translations which, as we’ve covered in previous articles, are dangerously unreliable. Another tactic they implement is using non-native language speakers who have no proficiency in the niche area for the document needed to be translated. A comparison would be hiring an electrician to fix your plumbing: while they both work as handymen, their skill sets are completely different. What sets TSI apart from other third party translation and localization providers is we never use computer translations. Additionally, we employ translators who are native in the output language and have a deep understanding of the industry at hand. While our rates are not rock bottom, they are in line with domestic industry standards. Taking it a step further, we strive to help guide our customers through the process so they understand exactly what they are paying for. At the end of the day, is paying a few dollars more worth the correct SEO, keywords and descriptions to lock in sales? We think it is. Feel free to reach out for an estimate on your project. In conjunction with Amazon’s Global Selling platform, we are eager to help you grow your business beyond North America. ![]() At TSI, many of our clients need translations of website related content- particularly their company websites or web portals that employees or customers use to conduct business. Translating websites, particularly HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), adds an additional level of difficulty to the project. But why? Translating websites requires an understanding of HTML, which is a set of markup symbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display on a browser page. Each individual markup element is referred to as a tag.While some tags are self-closing, such as the <mg >; and <input > tags, most require code to denote the beginning and end of the tag (i.e. <p>My paragraph content<p>). In those cases, text or copy is inserted between tags. Think of the pulldown menu on a site as an example. What we see as someone browsing the site may only say “HOME” or “PORTFOLIO”, but there’s an entire list of words and symbols that are not visible to us. It is also common for there to be nested tags: (i.e. <p>Some regular text with a word I want <b>emphasized</b></p>). Every web browser has default "styles" for standard tags that dictate how the tag content will display. For example, <h1> tag content will be bold by default, and <p> tag content will not. Inline style properties on tags or CSS properties set in a <style> block or imported via an external CSS file can be used suggest to web browser how the copy appears on a page, what the color of the text will be, the size and type of font, whether it is bold, italic, etc., and whether it is indented, justified, left-aligned, centered or right-aligned, etc. A translator has to be careful not to inadvertently delete, move or otherwise disturb the tags, which would result in misalignment of the copy and the introduction of unintentional modifications to the visual language of the website, or even worse- rendering pages of the website unusable. When it comes to jobs requiring HTML translation, we have a talented team of native language translators who are not only proficient in language translation, but in code and HTML. This helps keeps translated websites free of any errors. If you’re interested in expanding your business abroad, HTML translation is a great place to start because in this day and age, most consumers use the internet to search for businesses. Don’t hesitate to reach out for a quote and consultation. The following are examples of HTML translations in several languages. English "Out of {{totalSelected}} line(s) selected, {{totalAdded}} added to the order list successfully!", "Process No. <b>{{processNo}}</b> for customer no. <b>{{customerNo}}</b> has been approved successfully with order no. ", "Showing <b>{{RESULTCOUNT}}</b> match for serial number <b>\"{{PARTNUMBER}}\"</b>", =============================================================================== Russian "Из общего числа выбранных строк ({{totalSelected}}) в список заказов было успешно добавлено {{totalAdded}}!", "Процесс № <b>{{processNo}}</b> для заказчика № <b>{{customerNo}}</b> был успешно утвержден с присвоением номера заказа", "Отображается <b>{{RESULTCOUNT}}</b> совпадение(ий) для серийного номера <b>\"{{PARTNUMBER}}\"</b>", =============================================================================== Simplified Chinese "已选择的 {{totalSelected}} 行中有 {{totalAdded}} 行已成功添加到订单列表!", "客户号 <b>{{customerNo}}</b> 的处理号 <b>{{processNo}}</b> 已成功核准,订单号为 ", "显示流水号 <b>\"{{PARTNUMBER}}\"</b> 的 <b>{{RESULTCOUNT}}</b> 个匹配项", =============================================================================== Portuguese "De {{totalSelected}} linha(s) selecionada, {{totalAdded}} foram adicionadas à lista de pedidos com sucesso!", "O processo n.º <b>{{processNo}}</b> para o cliente n.º <b>{{customerNo}}</b> foi aprovado com sucesso com o n.º do pedido ”, "Mostrando <b>{{RESULTCOUNT}}</b> correspondências para o número de série <b>\"{{PARTNUMBER}}\"</b>", =============================================================================== German "Von {{totalSelected}} ausgewählte(n) Zeile(n) wurden {{totalAdded}} erfolgreich zur Bestellliste hinzugefügt!", "Die Prozessnr. <b>{{processNo}}</b> für Kunde Nr. <b>{{customerNo}}</b> wurde erfolgreich mit Bestellnr. bestätigt. ", "Es wird das <b>{{RESULTCOUNT}}</b> Gegenstück für die Seriennummer <b>\"{{PARTNUMBER}}\"</b>" angezeigt, =============================================================================== Latin American Spanish "Fuera de {{totalSelected}} línea (s) seleccionada (s), {{totalAdded}} agregado a la lista de órdenes con éxito!", "Nº de proceso <b> {{procesoNo}} </ b> para el Nº de cliente <B> {{clienteNo}} </ b> se aprobó con éxito con Nº de orden", "Mostrando <b> {{RESULTCOUNT}} </ b> coincidencia para el número de serie <b> \" {{PARTNUMBER}} \ "</ b>", =============================================================================== European French " Du{{totalSelected}} de la (des) ligne(s) sélectionnée(s), {totalAdded}}} ajoutées à la liste des commandes avec succès. !", " Le nº de processus <b>{{{{processNo}}}</b> pour le n° de client. <b>{{{{customerNo}}}</b> a été approuvé avec succès avec le numéro de commande.. ", " Afficher <b>{{RESULTCOUNT}}}</b> correspondant au numéro de série. <b>\"{{PARTNUMBER}}\"</b>", =============================================================================== French Canadian "Sur un total de {{totalSelected}} ligne(s) sélectionnée(s), {{totalAdded}} ont été ajoutées à la liste de commande avec succès !", "Le no. de traitement <b>{{processNo}}</b> pour le client no. <b>{{customerNo}}</b> a correctement été approuvé avec le no. de commande ", "Affichage de <b>{{RESULTCOUNT}}</b> correspondances pour le numéro de série <b>\"{{PARTNUMBER}}\"</b>", |
Author
Francis Semmens is the founder of TSI and author of all blog posts with a focus on translation for clients and translators alike. Archives
May 2019
Categories
All
|