[Infographic] Ecommerce translation: humans vs. machines

The fact is …

Human translation is not necessarily the best return on investment for your ecommerce business.

Slow translations carried out by humans can cost your business a loss in sales potential, especially if you change your inventory regularly. Not to mention the actual translation costs.

But humans are at least accurate! You might say. You may actually want perfect, even poetically beautiful, translations of your listings.

Well, our response would be: Be careful right there!

Buyers are not looking for great product descriptions, but great product offers. Clearly listed attributes and the right keywords are the core of optimal ecommerce translation.

Keywords that will sell your product.

Will an average human translator know which keywords will sell your product? Highly unlikely. Machines and a big data analysis will.

Further, if you expect human translation to be error-free, you may be right, but think about this ….

To err is human.

A human translator can specialize in car parts, for instance, but may not be familiar with the correct fashion terms. Similarly, individual human translators can translate the same phrases in different ways. This can result in a lot of confusion, faulty translations and keywords not entered in search boxes.

Hence, always appreciate human knowledge but never underappreciate machine capabilities. Ecommerce automation takes brains, but here’s some good news: Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes machines much more human than they used to be.

It is humans that have knowledge, do the thinking and design machines. But it is machines that are fast and more consistent. Technology combined with the human touch is the key to delivering consistent quality.

Still in doubt that machines can provide you with optimal translations of your product listings? Check out the infographic below!

Ecommerce translation: humans vs. machines

In a nutshell

If you want to organize your ecommerce translations yourself, e.g. by employing human translators, manually inserting product descriptions in different languages or trying to find the right keywords, perhaps by trial & error, it’s absolutely fine …

… if you have a lot of patience and time on your hands.

But today … you really don’t have to!

Especially as in most cases what international ecommerce sellers need are not translation agencies, but experienced cross-border partners and reliable ecommerce solutions.

The result of successful ecommerce translation are keywords and attributes that will help to find your product and sell it. Automated ecommerce solutions can help you achieve that in an easy & hassle-free way.

Check out our translation page for more information!