Translation for Global

B2B Ecommerce

Online B2B sales are growing rapidly at home and overseas.

Scalability of cloud platforms, constant mobile access, and

the changing demographics of B2B buyers will accelerate

the move to e-commerce. As industry, logistics, and

warehousing become automated, purchasing will be

expected to keep pace. For many B2B businesses, overseas

markets have become essential for growth.

* Forrester Research predicts that US online B2B sales will

increase from 855 billion in 2016 to 1.1 trillion by 2020.

* Frost & Sullivan predicts the global B2B online market

will be twice the size of the online B2C market by 2020,

with a projected $6.7 trillion in revenues.

* The total Chinese e-commerce market topped $2.3

trillion in 2015 alone, and almost 70% of that came from

B2B sales.

* Cross-Border eCommerce Community (CEBC) found that

“60-80% of e-commerce exporters survived their first year

in business compared with a 30-50% survival rate for

traditional businesses.”

* English-language sites will account for only 33.1 % of

online global purchasing in 2020. The next two top

languages will be Simplified Chinese (12.8%) and Spanish

(8.4%).

B2B merchants are under more pressure than ever to

strengthen their global digital presence. This could include

creating a multilingual, optimized website with

e-commerce capabilities.

Website fundamentals :

Translating a website for cross-border e-commerce

requires much more than just choosing a multilingual and

multi-currency e-commerce platform (of which there are

currently more than 120). We often see incompletely

translated websites which aspire to overseas sales. These

either assume English proficiency on the part of the user or

rely on Google to translate information on the fly. For best

practices in e-commerce translation, we offer the

following tips:

Reach across organizational silos before you begin :

Your organization did market research to decide whether

to enter the market at all; leverage this. The findings can

provide a useful foundation for keyword research as well

as overall content strategy.

Establish priorities and limits :

Market research can also help decide whether to translate

the whole site at once, or to focus on top-selling items in

that particular market. It can also help you decide on the

domain structure and whether to localize according to

language (i.e., one site for all German-speaking countries)

or according to country (separate sites for Switzerland,

Austria, and Germany).

Don’t be stingy :

Once you’ve determined how much of the site to translate,

do not skimp on product descriptions. For example, some

online retailers will localize the pricing, shipping, and

sizing information, but leave the actual descriptions in

English. Even though much of the international business

world does speak English, this is a mistake, because buyers

want information in their own language. In addition, using

the language of your target market improves search

rankings. And don’t forget to translate the website and

product metadata as well.

What about additional product marketing content?

For many B2B sites, detailed product information is often

included in the form of a downloadable .pdf, or

demonstrations via streaming video. This content will be

necessary for your foreign customers. Keep in mind that

your language service partner will maintain translation

memories as content is translated. This means that future

updates and changes can be added without needing to

translate the entire document over again. Voiceovers are a

good choice for localizing streaming video. If marketing

material on the site needs to be lively and localized,

transcreation provides a mix of translation and native

language copywriting.

There are many more considerations that B2B e-commerce

websites need to take into account. B2B online sales have

unique requirements such as tiered pricing levels and

customized products: this creates more complexity in the

localization process. User interfaces need to be localized to

accommodate not just different languages, but different

fonts, patterns of syntax, and user expectations.

Responsive design is essential, as use of mobile devices for

business purposes increases across the world. B2B

customer education and relationship management tends to

be ongoing, so this content will require attention as well.

Finally, the frequency with which you intend to update

your site will determine whether your site would benefit

from a proxy or other translation management service in

partnership with a language service provider. To compete

in a globalized world, translation and localization services

are more important than ever. Choosing a language service

partner with digital savvy and experience will facilitate the

shift to international e-commerce. We invite you to talk

with us to learn more about the complexities of

e-commerce localization.