The Localization Roundup (2020-10-02)

Welcome to our Localization Roundup where we share some of the best articles we found this week on software and website localization.

After Localization, Software Needs ‘Countrification’

This article looks at localization from a businessperson’s standpoint. It explains that translating the language on a webpage is only part of what is required to really appeal to local users. Even taking care of all the technical issues that fall under the term of “website localization” is only part of what is required.

“Countrification,” as the author calls it, is taking every country’s cultural dynamics into consideration when planning your outreach to the people in that region.

This quotation from the article strikingly showed the importance of countrification:

“In Germany for instance, a surprising number of people still use Lotus Notes for email and collaboration. In Japan, people are using Nintendo gaming devices as web browsers. In Russia, many more people use Viber than WhatsApp. For developers working on web content, this means that images and videos need to dynamically adapt to a staggering range of browser, device and what’s known as ‘microbrowser’ environments,” said Tal Lev-Ami in his capacity as co-founder and CTO of Cloudinary.

Don’t let this article scare you from trying to localize your website. Trying to reach foreign markets is better than not trying. But as you localize your website, keep the iteration or kaizen mindset, and use your wins with localization to help you improve and “countrify” for every major target market.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianbridgwater/2020/09/11/after-localization-software-needs-countrification/#6819c7e231bb

Stripe Says Lack of Translation Most Common Error in European E-commerce

The payment processor Stripe recently did a study of checkout pages of European e-commerce sites, which shed some light on the causes of shopping cart abandonment in e-commerce.

Shopping cart abandonment is when the customer chooses items to buy and then fails to go through with the purchase. It’s one of the top concerns of e-commerce websites. A good e-commerce website should make every effort to test every element of the sales process in order to drive the lowest possible rate of shopping cart abandonment and the highest possible rate of completed sales.

However, “The study, entitled The State of European Checkouts in 2020, showed that more than half (58%) of customer checkouts ‘had at least three basic errors, adding unnecessary friction for customers and complicating the checkout process.’ The research went on to show that 9 in 10 lost sales in Europe came from failures on the checkout page.”

One of the most egregious errors leading to lost sales was the lack of the appropriate language on the checkout pages.

https://slator.com/demand-drivers/stripe-says-lack-of-translation-most-common-error-in-european-e-commerce/

How to Provide Feedback to Translators During Localization

One important consideration of localization project management is ensuring that translators have the contextual information they need in order to make accurate translations.

One aspect of that is the need for an effective Q&A system so that the translators can easily ask questions of the developers. (Download your own free Q&A spreadsheet template here.)

But another aspect is allowing translators to view the application or webpage they are translating. This article explains the importance of making that information available and how the company’s tool facilitates that.

https://www.transifex.com/blog/2020/how-to-provide-feedback-to-translators-during-localization/

That’s our roundup for this week. Leave a comment below to share any great localization or translation articles you have read lately.