The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the e-commerce industry. As businesses went online, expanding their presence globally became much easier. That said, when you need to cater to customers across geographies, you must “localize” to establish a connection in a true sense. This makes it imperative for you to adopt language translation services, essentially - machine translation.

In simple terminology, machine translation refers to using computers and technology to convert a piece of text into a different language with minimum human involvement. With advances in technology, newer ways of machine translation are becoming popular. Whether it's marketing translation services or website localization, each holds special significance in e-commerce.

Read on to delve into what machine translation services are, the benefits you accrue by incorporating these services, a comparison of various translation services, and more.

Best Human Translation Services

Some of the best human translation services include:

TheWordPoint.com

It offers specialized translation services from professional experts in native languages and comes at an affordable price, quick delivery, and high quality.

Ulatus.com

It specializes in translation services for Asian languages like Korean or Japanese and has been in the market for over 15 years.

Gengo.com

It offers excellent translation services by connecting the language experts to the orders placed.

Translated.com

With an informative website and great customer support, it offers translations to 177 languages across 40 industries.

RushTranslate.com

With an amazing website and 52 languages, it offers great quality and speedy translation services, promising delivery in 1-3 days.

Best Machine Translation Services

Best quality plug-ins for various e-commerce shops

• WooCommerce
• Easy Digital Downloads
• BigCommerce for WordPress
• Ecwid E-commerce Shopping Cart
• MemberPress
• eCommerce Product Catalog by impleCode

Best translation apps for Shopify

• Translation Lab - AI Translate
• GI Translate Shop Translator
• Language Translate - Transcy
• Weglot
• Langify

E-Commerce Business Owners - Your Concerns Addressed!

Check out the responses to some of your pressing concerns/queries on translation services.

What is the financial impact of including additional languages?

E-commerce businesses operate across geographies, which makes language a critical parameter. That said, the remarkable benefit that machine translation can offer in localization is the immense cost-effectiveness. The costs involved in manually carrying out the translation processes would be much higher than those with a machine translator. The tool is a viable alternative for businesses with a considerable volume of content to translate.

Research suggests that Fortune 500 companies were reported to grow their profits 2.04 times and Earnings per Share 1.27 times by investing in translation services.

Why should I, as a business owner, worry about this part when Google Translate does everything?

Well, to understand this, let us consider some examples. Suppose you need ecommerce translation to build a multilingual online store. This does not mean translating a single page into several languages.

To make each language version available on search engines and to your users, you must create a separate website for each locale and connect it to the site domain. This requires a lot of careful planning and code optimization to carve a rich user experience across each language and enhance search visibility.

Once your website is ready, you need to maximize traffic. It is imperative to understand what the users search for in queries, which English translation may not suffice. You should optimize your web pages based on their jargon or slang.

These are just some use cases of why Google Translate will not suffice, and you need to look for machine translation services.

What content should I translate - website, emails, blogs, etc.?

While the website forms the core pillar, which certainly needs translation, other content that promotes your products or attracts traffic must also be translated, ideally. Some of these could include:

• Product pages and product description
• PPC ads and landing pages
• Social media translation
• Customer support info
• Marketing and promotional emails

Marketing translation services are equally important as customers are targeted through paid ads and marketing campaigns.

Most e-commerce platforms have languages built in, but are they good enough?

While it is good to have languages built-in, they don’t completely serve the purpose. When e-commerce businesses cater to customers worldwide, developing a connection with the local audience is imperative. This necessitates the inclusion of phrases such as jargon, slang, or other local native terms in the online store's content to create a professional yet customer-centric experience.

Multilingual website translation is integral to e-commerce platforms, with the flavor of the local slang or terms.

Comparing various choices available for e-commerce translation

Upwork Translators

As a reputed online freelancer marketplace, Upwork supports various services besides translations. These include copywriting, content writing, graphic designing, and more. About translations, you usually get a good number of freelancers for any language pair and any budget. It lets you post jobs and receive applications from the members. Alternatively, you could contact the freelancer directly by browsing the lists.

Reviews from clients and parameters like overall earnings let you judge the capability of the freelancers. Regarding pricing, it depends on how you negotiate with the translator, though the website translation service cost from top-notch experts ranges from $15-$35 per hour.

Fiverr

Like Upwork, Fiverr is a freelancer marketplace that supports various services, including translation. However, it works differently. In Fiverr, you can’t post the job and receive applications; instead, the service provider or translator creates their profiles with their pricing/charges. You can browse for the translation service you require and, based on your budget, choose the freelancer and seek their services.

Machine Translation Vs. Human Translation Vs. Hybrid

Machine translation uses computer technology to convert text from one language to another with the least human involvement. Human translation involves complete translation services by professional experts. That said, translating huge chunks of text can be highly daunting and time-consuming for humans.

On the other hand, machine translations, which use AI-based software, can translate millions of texts in just a matter of time. In case accuracy is important, human translations work well. If speed and cost-effectiveness are priorities, machine translation is the ideal option.

A hybrid of both would offer the best of both worlds. You could start with machine translation as the base, and once done, it could be validated and refined by human translators.

DeepL and Google Translate

Compared to human translation services, these are much cheaper. An example is for translating 100,000 words. A human would charge around $10,000, while Google Translate charges just $20.

DeepL is a little expensive compared to Google Translate. However, it is found to be more accurate for some languages.

Companies /Agencies

Various companies and professional agencies also provide expert translation services. They work in a simple, user-friendly way. All you need to do is upload your text as a file. Once done, professional linguists in the company will complete the translation of your content. Finally, you will be able to download the translated file.

These services are quite efficient as they provide support from certified expert translators globally. Besides, they are cost-effective and quick in service.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT also offers translation services. However, it suffers from certain limitations. First, it is not as accurate as those services from machine translations or professional experts. Second, it only partially translates technical jargon or details. Finally, most importantly, its data comes from 2021 and has not been updated for events or language changes.

Wrapping Up

As e-commerce businesses grow, they must incorporate localization into their platforms to better serve customers. Machine translation services and human translators are outstanding means to meet these requirements and carve a niche in the global markets.