Why you should translate your e-commerce website

You already sell your products online, so selling them internationally should be easy, right? That’s the idea, anyway. In practice, your website needs to be translated into different languages to reach those international audiences. Even though your website is technically accessible from all four corners of the world, it will not generate any sales if visitors cannot read the product information and sales pages.

Customer comprehension is obviously crucial, but there are actually several other good reasons to get your e-commerce website translated. The following are just some of the benefits to translating your website.

6 reasons to translate your e-commerce website

1. Increased customer confidence in your e-commerce website

Picture the scene: Andrea is an Italian traveller looking for Asian restaurants in Berlin. He does not speak German, but he has a good grasp of English. On the first two websites he visits, the menus, descriptions and contact information are only provided in the language of Goethe. On the third website, he has the option to switch the language to English. Andrea can find out everything he needs to know, and even reserve a table for two directly via the website.

He is able to check that there are vegan options on the menu for his partner, and is excited to see that the restaurant serves his favourite dish. A relieved Andrea makes a dinner booking for the next week, feeling confident in his choice. He also guesses that the staff at the restaurant probably speak English.

Having your e-commerce site translated into English and other languages is a great way to strengthen your emotional bond with your customers and win their trust.

2. Better international SEO

Why should you translate your e-commerce website? For better search engine optimisation, of course!

If you optimise your site in several languages by finding the best keywords for each country, you will be able to improve your international SEO.

However, you should always take care to avoid the most common SEO errors. To ensure that your e-commerce site is properly optimised, you need to apply some good practices: update your articles regularly, create internal links between different pages, enter your metadata, etc.

For flawless results, you can entrust the translation of your e-commerce website to a translator who specialises in SEO.

3. A strong international presence

Better international SEO = a larger share of foreign markets! Today, you are in direct competition with merchants in your country. Tomorrow, you could be coming up against all sorts of different players from throughout Europe and around the world. A strong international presence will allow you to acquire market shares in multiple countries.

4. A personalised customer experience

To ensure that your cross-border e-commerce activities are in line with accepted standards, you must adapt to the needs of each target market. Naturally, translating your e-commerce website plays a vital role in personalising the customer experience.

For the best translation results, you should consider each element of your online store: your product descriptions, your brand overview, the sales pages (basket, order confirmation), and also the follow-up emails sent to your customers! We will revisit this topic later.

Finally, to complement the translation of your website, multilingual customer service offers a truly comprehensive experience.

5. An improved e-reputation

If you are looking to boost your e-reputation, translating your e-commerce website is the place to start. Getting your online shop translated into multiple languages clearly demonstrates to your domestic customers and partners that you are successful and growing on a large scale. This undertaking will therefore make a positive impression on your consumers and help to improve your online brand image.

6. A competitive edge

Finally, translating your website will give you an advantage over any monolingual companies, helping you to strengthen your position in your sector. To achieve the best results, you must engage a translation professional. Putting the fate of your business in the inhuman hands of a machine translation tool like DeepL or Google Translate is a very dangerous game. After all, any errors can seriously damage your professional image and credibility.

Which elements of your e-commerce website should you translate?

Now that you have decided to translate your e-commerce website, it’s time to make a specific plan. First things first, we recommend making a list of the elements you want to translate.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• your “About us”, “Our team” or “Our story” page
• your product categories and descriptions
• your return/refund and cookie policies, as well as your legal notices
• the pages dedicated to customer shopping baskets and payment methods
• automated emails
• image metadata
• website metadata
• your newsletter (if applicable)
• blog articles (if applicable), etc.

Why should you use a professional translation service?

Strange as it may seem, using a professional translation service can actually save you money.

Obviously, professional translation does require an initial investment. In the long term, however, your international sales will more than cover the cost.To really understand this phenomenon, let’s take a look at an example: you decide to use a translation plugin from TextMaster to translate your website. The process is quick and easy, and the results are extremely professional. Your new international customers can understand every element of your website, the emails they receive from you, your legal notices… Basically, they are ready to place an order.

Now for a different example: you decide to use a machine translation tool to translate your content into English, Chinese, Russian, Polish and more, even though you do not have any translation experience. Unfortunately, your writing is plagued with spelling errors, your sentences do not read naturally, whole chunks of text are missing… In short, your website does not inspire confidence and you do not see any sales.

The importance of including native speakers in the translation process cannot be overstated, even if they are only rereading and checking over texts that have been translated using a translation tool.

To delve further into this topic, explore the risks associated with machine translation.

Why should you translate your e-commerce website? In a nutshell

We have looked at some excellent reasons to translate your e-commerce website.

To sum up, professional translation:

• is a great way to attract traffic to your website
• helps to increase your conversion rate
• improves your e-reputation and customer loyalty
• sets you apart from the competition
• bolsters your website’s SEO.

Clearly, this intricate process requires advanced knowledge and expertise in the fields of translation and search engine optimisation.

At TextMaster, our translators have extensive experience in translating online content. Please feel free to reach out to discuss your needs.