Translation strategies for international e-commerce

Translation strategies for international e-commerce

The unstoppable growth of the Internet and the digitization of the economy and trade make access to international markets considerably easier. The companies seem to cross geographical boundaries without any problems. What remains, however, are the linguistic and cultural barriers.


International marketing, i.e. the market and competence-oriented management of the entire company in more than one country, also means that not only individual text content is translated, but the entire communication that affects the customer. There are e-commerce websites that only partially offer translation. If, for example, the prices / currencies are localized but the product descriptions are not, this may not have the desired effect on the customer and he or she may not visit the website a second time.

Is English enough?

English is actually still the most widely used Internet language and is often classified as the so-called lingua franca in the business world. According to Statista, there are around 335 million people who speak English as their mother tongue and around 1.5 billion people worldwide who speak English at different levels. This means that around 6 billion people do not speak English. Numerous studies also show that Internet users who master English as a foreign language at different levels prefer websites that are offered in their native language, especially when shopping online.


When companies speak the language of their customers and have the content translated accordingly, there is further potential in e-commerce. Translating the content can take a lot of time and resources, but it is usually worthwhile.

Dos and don'ts

In addition to the translation, localization is also an extremely important point. Date and time formats as well as prices should always be adapted to the respective target country. Separate websites with local domains are always advantageous (e.g. ".pl" for Poland or ".es" for Spain). This suggests that the website is a local provider. This solution also offers you clear advantages in the SEO area. With a holistic language translation service in the corresponding mother tongue, you can use further potential in e-commerce.


Translation memories, terms, bases and glossaries that are automatically created during the translation process are also invaluable. Once content has been created, it can be consistently reused. The technology helps to ensure that your very personal corporate language (individual and characteristic corporate language) is used consistently for all content.


What you should do without is machine translation. Entering a text in a corresponding free tool promises maximum uncomplicated and quick results. However, you cannot rely on the quality. Even if the machine-made translation does not contain any gross errors, the sentences still appear unnatural and choppy. Your brand stands for trust, professionalism and quality - convey this in your translations too.


Should you nevertheless use machine-made translations, please always have the text checked and corrected again by a specialist translator.


The competition never sleeps. Pay attention to the respective cultural preferences. Providers who do not adapt the language to the mother tongue of the target audience have a harder time. Investing in a professionally implemented online shop and presence is worthwhile in order to attract attention abroad.


Make use of all the advantages, we will be happy to advise you.
Location: India

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