Writing a product description is a hard and daunting task, especially when your multilingual e-commerce has more than 200 different products in stock. It may seem impossible to go one by one and spend a few minutes (or even hours) to write and translate product descriptions.

And let’s be honest, I’m pretty sure that this task is not on the top of your to-do list. You want to find a quick solution to start selling these products and increase the revenue of your business ASAP.

However, a standard description repeated over and over for each product can be making you lose money in the long run, especially when you need to translate product descriptions into multiple languages.

Even if the quality of the translation of product description may not seem a priority when getting your website up and running to sell, poor-quality translations can cause even bigger problems in the long run:

• Damage your reputation internationally.

Imagine a new potential clients landing on your product page and not being able to understand their features due to the poor quality of your translations. You won’t just lose potential clients; you’ll also make all these visitors to go away and never come back. No recommendations. No word of mouth. No good reviews. Nothing.

• Potential clients won’t be able to connect with your brand and products.

They won’t never understand why they need your products, how your brand is different from your competitors and how your products can meet their needs. You’ll even be sending all these potential clients straight to your competitors, who are already increasing their sales through optimised product descriptions.

• Your website will be negatively impacted by Google.

There’s no doubt that poor content will never do well when it comes to rank higher in Google searches. Poor translations will increase your website bounce rate and your website will be shown less on Google over time. All your SEO efforts will be thrown away.

Do you want to know what the top multinational companies do to sell more internationally? Keep reading.

6 key areas to translate product descriptions (with real examples)

1. Translation of headlines

Headlines are the first thing that your reader is going to see when they land on your product page. They need to be catchy and invite your potential client to stay on your website and keep reading your content.

Translating headlines isn’t always easy and straightforward. I’m pretty sure you’re using puns and play on words to make them more attractive. Sometimes these puns can be tricky to translate. Maybe they don’t even have an equivalent in different languages, and that’s why they can’t be translated automatically.

Translating literally headlines can damage the first impression of a client landing on your product page for the very first time.

Example

Personally, one of the companies that does a great job translating its headlines is Apple.

They normally use quite a few puns in their original English headlines, but they always know how to adapt these puns to make them work in different languages.

That’s what we call transcreation. They translate their headlines by creating completely new headlines that mean the same and work for their international audiences.

Whereas the English version mentions three as the magic number (the number of cameras available on the iPhone), the Spanish version mentions three masterpieces of photography.

2. Content adaptation (including pictures)

When you translate your product descriptions into a different language, you need to know your international audience:

• Why are they going to buy your products?
• What are their goals, needs and concerns?
• Are they the same for every language?

By doing this exercise, you may realise that Spanish-speaking audience, for instance, may be buying your products driven by different concerns or motivations. If that’s the case, it will be very important to adapt your texts and pictures and address these different concerns and motivations.

That’s how you’ll connect with your audience and stand out from your competitors. Potential clients will be more likely to buy from you if you talk directly to them and explain why they need your products in their specific context.

Example

We can see this technique implemented when the reason behind buying a product isn’t the same in different countries. Vichy is a great example of this:

As you can see, the English version of the product page focus on the health of your skin and the type of skins where you can apply their creams (sensitive skins, child-friendly…)

However, let’s have a look at the Spanish version of their product pages:

As you can see, both the content and images used on the website change a lot. The Spanish version of the website is focused on the high temperatures in Spain when people spend a lot of time on the beach. They address different features of their creams (water-resistant, so they can be used on the beach) and also different situations and contexts where people can use these creams (like going on a holiday trip to the beach).

3. Content distribution

It’s not just about the content you include in your product descriptions, but also how this content is distributed. Some audience may enjoy more visual content, while others may prefer text.

This will depend on how well your audience is educated and knows about your products. For example, Apple products don’t need a lot of text to encourage people to buy their products. People already know what’s an iPhone and what they can do with it. They just need to focus on the main features of the iPhone, but their content is mostly visual because people already know what they’re buying.

However, people may not be as familiar with muscle stimulators. So a muscle stimulator description will probably need more text to educate their audience about why they need these products and what they can achieve with this.

The same can happen in different countries. Some brands have more presence in a specific country and they don’t need to focus on the text, whereas they may need more text to translate product descriptions if their international audience isn’t as familiar with what they’re selling.

Example

IKEA is a very good example of this. Let’s have a look at their website in English and Spanish:

As you can see, the English version is much more visual. Pictures are bigger and there’s almost no text except from a headline with the essential information about the product.

However, the same product description in Spanish includes a paragraph explaining the benefits of buying this product. And we can clearly see that there’s a more balanced presence of images and text.

4. Localise units of measures

This one is more straightforward, but it can be very easily overlooked. Do your audience use the same currency to buy your products? If not, you may need to localise your prices. I.e., £500 isn’t the same as €500.

Do your clients measure length or size in the same way? You need to localise this as well if it’s relevant for your product. Otherwise, you potential clients may be at a loss when checking your products.

Example

Nike could be one of the most obvious examples of this:

They have to change both, prizes and sizes. That’s what we call localisation. Translation isn’t enough, given that a Spanish-user in Spain won’t be interested to know how many pounds these shoes cost in the UK, he’ll be interested to see the actual prize in euros. And the same applies to the shoe sizes.

5. Feedback and comments

Social proof is very important to sell products online. Potential customers are used to checking what other people are saying about the product before actually buying it. Positive feedback or a five-start rating could make your customer make his mind to finally buy the product.

Translating this positive feedback isn’t enough. Let’s take the sun creams as an example. A customer in Spain could leave positive feedback saying that this specific cream was super useful when he was on the beach. However, this feedback may not be useful for someone living in a country where going to the beach isn’t as common.

Audiences in different countries may value your products in completely different ways. That’s why it’s important to localised feedback depending on the location or language of your potential client.

Example

Again, a good example of this can be IKEA.

Feedback from someone living in the same country or speaking the same language than your potential clients may connect better with them.

6. Customise call-to-actions

What do you want your visitors to do once they’ve landed on your product page? You probably want them to buy the product, right? You need to guide your visitors through your product page until they arrive to the call-to-action, that element where your visitors need to click to proceed and buy your products.

This element needs to be persuasive and encourage your audience to buy. However, persuasion may work differently in different countries and languages. You’ll need to customise the call-to-action to be as persuasive as possible depending on the audience you’re targeting.

Call-to-actions are normally buttons placed next to the product so everyone can buy it right after they’ve read the product description. You would need to pay attention to the following:

• The words included in this button. What for an audience may be persuasive, for a different audience may seem desperate or bossy. Be careful and choose these words carefully. This is the last stage before buying and we don’t want to scare a potential client.
• Colours. Call-to-actions tend to have eye-catching colours so they can be easily recognised. However, colours may have different meaning in different cultures, so be sure you’re picking the right ones for your audience.
• Position. As mentioned before, some audience may need more information than others if they’re not as familiar with your product. Placing a call-to-action too early on your product description can ruin the experience of your potential clients.

Example

A good example of customisation of call-to-actions is ASOS.

As you can see the English version is very straightforward and tells the English-speaking audience to buy. On the other hand, the Spanish version is more subtle and invite the audience to “see now” the summer collection.

Translate product descriptions: benefits

1. Increase sales and reputation of your business

Translating and adapting your product descriptions into the language of your audience will increase your sales in the long run. 60% of global consumers never or rarely buy products from English-only websites.

Having a multilingual website with localised content will improve your reputation internationally and will help you attract more potential customers.

2. Connect with your audience internationally

Your translations will help you connect with your audience in different countries and cultures. This is extremely important to promote word-of-mouth and attract more potential clients to your online shop over time.

It will also help you be more persuasive with your texts and create more effective product descriptions that increase sales internationally.

3. Educate your audience

Once your audience knows what your products can do for them, it will be easier to sell your products. Educating your audience over time is important to promote loyalty among your clients.

Your clients need to know how your products are going to solve their problems and meet their needs. Educated clients can also turn into brand ambassadors to promote word-of-mouth and bring more potential clients to your website.

4. Guide your audience through the sales process and call to action

Good translations will guide potential clients through your website, so they don’t get lost through the sales process.

And this sums up everything mentioned above: your translations will connect with your potential customers, educating them while they follow the necessary steps to buy from you for the first time. This first sale is the most difficult one, and you need to optimise your content and translate product descriptions to make your potential clients fall in love with your brand.

Let me know in the comments: have you ever translated your product description to increase sales in your business? How was the biggest challenge? Was it worthy?

I’d love to know your experience and I’ll make sure to provide my experience as well to help you improve your product descriptions.