The Key to Effective English to Spanish Translation for E-Commerce

The key to successful e-commerce is engagement. That comes even before prices. You need to engage your potential buyers in the source language. But then, in time for expansion into the Spanish-speaking market, engagement has to flow in Spanish. Clearly, no one has the Holy Grail in terms of sales, but we can offer a few honest pointers to get your multilingual e-commerce endeavor going.

Information is Power

To get your products descriptions through to a new Spanish-speaking client base, you will need an accurate and culturally sensitive translation. The ideal approach would be to have a different translation per each Spanish-speaking country you want to reach. But that would mean a much bigger investment both in time and resources. If your content is mainly targeting Mexico, for instance, you can translate into that Spanish variant. Then, if your secondary target is Argentina, you can localize the terms to that variety between parenthesis. More than that will crowd the content, and create confusion within the website.

Honest and on the Spot Product Descriptions

Product descriptions are the heart and soul of e-commerce. If you post a product description and it generates more questions than sales, you need to take a deeper look, and change your game. That applies to all languages. As you have already guessed, precise, specific and appealing translations are the way to go. You can include all the product’s features, benefits and uses in a creative and clear way. We are invaded by content these days, as we said before, but sales content is the Kraken of all sea monsters. How do you stand out in a flood of similar offers, and discounts? Well, part of that can be achieved with the product’s quality itself, your sales model, customer service, the way you present the item, and a bit of SEO magic to boost your search results.

Keep in Mind Local Traditions

When translating sales content, localization is fundamental to your product’s appeal and reach into the new market. Your team should know and pay attention to local traditions that bring sales opportunities, and localize accordingly. For instance, a U.S. holiday sale might need a few variations, so it can adjust to local festivities in Chile. This is when collaboration from native Spanish speakers comes in handy. They will definitely know what resonates close to home, and what sounds false and artificial. In this day and age, there is no place for deceiving sales strategies.

Navigation and Growing Profit

Translating and localizing the specific sales content of your website is not enough. This will not cut it with Spanish-speaking visitors, if you leave the user interface in English. The navigation in your sales website translated into Spanish should be as seamless as it is in English. Otherwise, your prospective customers will go somewhere else.  

This process entails translating buttons, error messages, menu items, and instructions, among others. As always, consistency across the whole website is crucial not to confuse visitors. Of course, your layout includes visual elements and captions. These items should be both translated, and adapted since Spanish usually takes more space than English.

Full On Customer Support

The formal, and a bit more boring, aspect of your website must also be translated, and duly localized. These elements are vital for fair trade, and they are part of your best practices. The material included would be: FAQs, privacy policy, return policies, shipping information, and contact details. The absolutely needed cherry on top for your Spanish-speaking customers would be offering customer service through email, chat, and phone in their language. This will reinforce trust and loyalty for returning customers.

If you believe in your business and your products, then honor them by opening up to new markets. Get started with us in order to build an engaging and powerful e-commerce platform for your Spanish-speaking visitors.