Challenges
- Short Deadline & Frequent Product Launches: The client wanted the translation completed swiftly to meet their product launch cycles. However, this tight timeline increased the risk of inconsistency and errors if handled without a structured workflow.
- New to Localization: As the client was new to localization, they required our guidance regarding best practices and processes throughout the project.
- Integration Challenges: The client's website content was being pulled from two different sources: some products were coming directly from Shopify, while others were coming from a Product Information Management (PIM) system. This made the TMS (Translation Management System) integration complex and led to content duplication when fetching product descriptions.
- Dynamic Content Updates During Translation: The products marked as finalized for translation were still being updated, resulting in source text inconsistencies and uploading errors when translations were re-integrated into the system.
- Static Pages and Hardcoded Content: The default store theme and other static pages were hardcoded, preventing them from being automatically extracted into the translation system. This made it harder to ensure all content was localized properly.
Solutions
- Machine Translation with Post-Editing (MTPE): To meet the cost and speed expectations, we opted for MTPE, using the most appropriate machine translation engine for the eCommerce domain after reviewing multiple engines. This approach balanced the client’s need for quick delivery while ensuring quality through post-editing by experienced linguists.
- Dedicated Linguistic Team: A team of eCommerce domain experts was created to focus on this project, ensuring quick turnaround times without compromising translation quality.
- Pre-Processing of Files: Our technical team pre-processed the content files, addressing tag issues and removing content duplication caused by the source coming from two different systems. This pre-processing step was critical to ensuring smooth extraction and reintegration of content during translation.
- Glossaries and Style Guides: We created comprehensive glossaries and style guides in both target languages. These resources were reviewed and approved by the client to ensure brand consistency and accurate translation of key terms. These glossaries became the foundation for maintaining consistency across all product descriptions and collections.
- Client Education: We provided detailed guidance to the client on the localization process, emphasizing the importance of finalizing product content before translation. This reduced errors and inconsistencies during the translation phase.
- Technical Training for Future Localization: We educated the client's technical team on best practices for internationalization, advising them to avoid hardcoding content in static pages and theme files. This training ensured smoother translations for future product launches.
- Localization Testing: Before the site was launched, we performed complete linguistic checks on the website to ensure there are no errors appearing in the final site related to text corruption, truncation or other layout issues.
Benefits
- Faster Time-to-Market: The use of MTPE allowed for quicker translation while maintaining quality. This ensured the client could meet tight deadlines for product launches.
- Increased Sales and Market Expansion: The successful localization of their website enabled the client to tap into new markets. As a result, client saw a significant increase in sales from the new markets.
- Enhanced Brand visibility: Consistent translations in target languages helped in driving business growth and enhancing brand visibility. User engagement metrics, including time on site, pages per session, and bounce rate, demonstrated a notable improvement.
Video Localization from Spiritual Organization
Isha Institute of Inner Sciences, a non-profit spiritual organization based in the USA, is dedicated to elevating human consciousness and fostering global harmony through individual transformation. With a vision to make spiritual teachings accessible worldwide, the Institute sought to translate and localize its content into seven languages: Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and Portuguese. The primary goal was to translate blogs, website content, mobile applications, and videos featuring spiritual teachings from English into the target languages. The intention was to ensure that individuals in diverse regions could engage with the transformative teachings of the Guru in their native languages. Tools/Technologies Used: Transifex: For collaborative translation management Smartcat: To streamline the localization process Adobe Premiere: For video editing and dubbing
Successful Delivery of 60,000-Word Irish Gaelic Translation for a Software Company
This case study outlines our successful delivery of a 60,000-word translation project from English (US) to Irish Gaelic for a prominent software company. The client aimed to expand its market presence in Europe and required high-quality marketing content translated within a stringent deadline.
