Expanding Global E-Commerce: Key Features to Seek in a Translation Platform with OneSky

E-commerce sales boomed as the pandemic started—and the field is still seeing a rapid rate of growth into 2023. E-commerce as an industry is expected to grow 10.4% this year alone, taking an estimated 20.8% of traffic away from physical locations and storefronts. 

In short? There’s never been a better time to invest in your e-commerce localization and translation strategy. 

OneSky is here to help you create a global presence with your e-commerce business, offering strategic translation and localization support that drives growth. 

Read on to learn more about the benefit of accurate and optimized e-commerce translation, the key features to look for in an e-comm-specific translation platform, and how OneSky can help grow your business. 

The Impact of E-commerce Localization

Bringing e-commerce translation to your e-commerce website can be a lengthy process—but we promise it’s worth it! Here are just a few benefits you can enjoy as you optimize e-commerce content into a market’s native language:

• Increasing conversion rates by speaking the local language. Website content can act as a salesperson for your brand on a 24/7 basis, connecting your customers with new products they’ll love. When people can understand your product descriptions, they can fully understand the transformation that your brand’s products can bring—fueling conversions, brand awareness, and brand loyalty as a result.
• Building trust with local consumers through cultural accuracy. People trust what they can understand. While machine learning-based translation technology can offer a baseline user experience, it certainly doesn’t offer the impact that localized content does. Investing in a translation solution that localizes your e-commerce translation output is key to giving your customers and prospects a five-star, immersive, and culturally relevant experience. 

Key Features of an Ideal E-commerce Translation Platform

Choosing the right e-commerce translation platform is essential to your growth and success. Here are a few key features to look for as you begin your search: 

• Support for multiple languages and regions. A quality translation solution will enable you to translate across multiple languages and regions simultaneously, accounting for the minute details that elevate your user experience. Bonus points if the platform also has localization tools to help you impact international markets quickly and strategically.
• Integration capabilities with leading e-commerce platforms. Your content translation platform should have an extensive integration library that supports your efficient, pre-established workflows. If you choose to work with a translation agency over a standalone platform, consider asking about this in the onboarding call—and determine if it is self-serve or if they connect everything on your behalf.
• Quality assurance and consistency tools. Anything can go wrong at any point in your translation project—and these small errors can drastically affect your customer experience. That’s why it’s critical to ensure that your solution of choice has inbuilt quality assurance checkpoints, providing you with high-quality human translation that hits the mark each time.
• Scalability to match business growth. If you’re looking to rapidly scale your e-commerce business, you need a lightweight API that is able to grow with you. Taking the time to assess the scalability of your choice can save you time spent searching for alternatives later on.
• Security features to protect sensitive product and customer data. Your online store probably deals with sensitive customer data and payment information, which should be protected with the most advanced security measures on the market. Be sure to evaluate your e-commerce website translation tool for proven inbuilt security solutions. Future you (and your customers) will thank you for it!
• Speedy translations for time-sensitive promotions and sales. Whether you want to drop a last-minute special offer or you have to pivot for your profitability, you should be able to do so freely—which is why choosing an agile option is so important. Evaluate your e-commerce platform of choice and determine how long an offer might take on average. Then, you can decide if that works with the needs of your team and business.
• Collaboration tools for teams to work in harmony. Real-time collaboration saves everyone time (and calendar space!) Be sure to check that your e-commerce platform has collaboration tools (think comments, chats, tags, experts that can help, and project-specific channels). 

Common Mistakes in E-commerce Translation and How to Avoid Them

Getting a “lay of the land” allows you to create the most comprehensive strategy possible. That’s why we’ve put together this list of the most common e-commerce translation pitfalls, empowering you to use your tool suite and your team to minimize your risks. 

• Literal translations that miss cultural nuances: This pitfall is generally more common in brands that use machine translation alone, as it lacks the contextual, nuanced hand that human translation can bring. A direct translation process is generally not the best, as it lacks the native tone and feel that can more quickly connect with your clients. 
  • E-commerce store owners can appeal to both search engines and customers with e-commerce translation services that incorporate localization services, machine learning, and human translators for the best possible result.
    
• Overlooking product-specific lingo or terms: Lingo, in some contexts, is appropriate. Chances are, if you have a storefront, your customers will be looking for specific terms to indicate that your product is able to meet their needs. 
  • Use lingo-related terms as you see fit on your e-commerce site, and do it well via linguists who can truly capture the meaning and context of your lingo in your target language.
    
• Ignoring user reviews and feedback translation: Your customers are your best litmus test, indicating if your copy is truly impactful or not. Unfortunately, some businesses choose to ignore customer reviews about translation quality compared to competitors in the global market. This can lead to customer support issues, brand damage, and a lower-quality experience for your consumer base. 
  • E-commerce companies can avoid this pitfall by implementing social listening measures in their translation and publication process. They can also work actively with the translation company, leveraging automation-based tools to aggregate consumer feedback and overall content quality.
    
• Not updating translations in line with product updates or changes: An e-commerce platform site that’s not optimized or updated can lead to confusion across product offerings in different languages—which can undermine both SEO scoring and the overall customer experience. 
  • Before moving into new markets, companies should be sure that existing translations have been optimized across all intended markets—preparing in advance for any upcoming releases or changes. 

Global Expansion Begins with OneSky

Neural machine translation often isn’t enough to globally grow and market your business. You need the convenience of automation with the expertise that trained linguists can bring—whether you’re translating from English, French, Spanish, Arabic, or any other language. 

That’s why we created OneSky—your centralized solution that supports your multilingual expansion. 

Our user-friendly TMS is designed to grow with you as you go, centralizing your expansion operations and supporting you at every stage of localization and translation. This support is made possible via our team of 1,000+ experts who can translate across 50+ languages and dialects—fueling your growth in a cost-efficient and strategic way. 

Ready to get started? We’re here to help. Connect with us today to learn more and start for free.