Case study
Translation of an e-commerce website into 5 languages
Translating your website is the first step towards internationalizing your company: a strategic investment that is often underestimated
Why you need a multidisciplinary team
AGRAS DELIC has been working in the pet food sector for more than twenty-five years with the aim of bringing quality to animal food, by using raw ingredients chosen with the same care as those selected for human consumption. The company distributes wet and dry pet food internationally in 50 countries around the world and, through an efficient logistics system, is able to supply both small stores and department stores in a timely manner.
Agras Delic chose AlfaBeta to translate its flagship brand website, Schesir, into 5 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French).
The challenges of a multilingual e-commerce website translation project
In summary:
- WordPress website
- Translation Management Plugin: WPML
- Product catalogue built with Woocommerce
- Advanced Custom Fields
- 5 languages to translate
- Approximately 250 products in various references
- Over 90,000 words
- 70% repetitions
- 5 weeks of work
Translating a website may be a seemingly simple task but it hides many technical and management risks.
In many cases, clients turn to unskilled translators who follow inefficient procedures, such as copying content to text files and manually re-entering translations into the backend. This seemingly simpler and cheaper option is actually more expensive as it often involves additional work (e.g. SEO optimization, integrating missing content, adapting the layout, etc.).
Since Schesir’s website is rich in content and has a high level of customization, translating texts by managing files manually would not have been possible. It was a very challenging project in many ways: in addition to handling the translation of a high volume of words into 5 languages on a tight deadline, we had to face a series of technical problems related to the compatibility of website components with the WPML plugin. The website architecture was rather complex and included the use of various plugins, a page builder (WP Bakery) and several custom fields created with Advanced Custom Fields.
The possibility of being immediately put in touch with Comunico, the communications agency that manages the client’s website, was fundamental for us.
Managing complexity
We proposed an optimized time management solution to the client, reduced the percentage of technical problems and guaranteed the best possible quality of translations, thanks to the use of CAT tools and the teamwork of our translators.
Initial analysis: WPML compatibility check
Pre-Production: Proactive Debugging
Translation process: coordinated teamwork
Final sanity check: verification of the correct insertion of translations and final adjustments
Initial Analysis
WPML compatibility check
To provide a reliable quote, it is necessary to obtain an accurate estimate of the volume of content to be translated by extracting it from the website. WPML allows you to export website content in an .xliff format, an xml-based standardized format designed for localization. In this way, it is possible to use assisted translation software (CAT Tools) that optimizes the translation process while allowing content repetitions to be taken into account.
In our case, because we were working with a product catalogue, the internal repetitions were quite high, and the use of CAT tools was essential to reduce translation times and costs.
In collaboration with the communications agency and with the support of WPML engineers, we carried out an analysis of plugin compatibility with WPML, and subsequently some content export and translation tests. This procedure allowed us to identify content that had not been correctly identified as translatable text strings by WPML.
Pre-production
Proactive debugging
Following the identification of compatibility issues, working in strict collaboration with Comunico and with the support of WPML engineers, we customized the WPML configuration file to make missing strings and custom fields translatable to obtain a complete export of all content to be translated.
E-commerce Website Translation Process
Coordinated teamwork
For this project we took on 5 professional native translators (one for each language) who worked as a team on a platform, where they could collaboratively solve terminological issues and adopt a consistent style in all 5 target languages. During the production phase, the customer was always available to answer the translators’ questions and this made it possible to reduce revision and quality control times.
Final sanity check
Verifying translation strings are correctly placed and making final adjustments
After completing and submitting translations, the linguists working on the project were able to check the texts published on the site, identify any formatting and layout problems, as well as test navigation and check the links worked, etc.
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