Dive Brief:
- More than half of multilingual shoppers say they have walked away from a potential purchase because the digital experience felt poorly localized, according to a survey of 800 U.S. consumers released last week by Liferay.
- Companies underestimate the difference between translation and localization, according to Yotam Levy, senior manager of customer insights and analyst relations at Liferay. An accurate translation can feel awkward if its content isn’t adjusted to match the nuances of the new language.
- More than half of respondents have walked away from purchases at brands even when they rated the non-English translations as good or excellent, and less than a quarter say non-English websites usually feel like they were written for them.
Dive Insight:
It’s easy to translate content into another language. The challenge lies in editing the altered content until it looks and sounds natural.
Localization problems are nearly universal for non-English experiences, as 9 in 10 respondents reported that they have noticed at least one issue with a website or app, according to Liferay’s survey.
“Brands actually generally do a pretty good job of literal translation,” Levy told CX Dive. “The problem is they don't necessarily do a great job of localization.”
Levy shared the example of translating the phrase “turn on the light” into Hebrew. A literal translation results in the phrase “open the light” — which will feel off to a proficient reader.
The question brands should ask when designing a multilingual experience is “what’s going to feel natural to the reader,” Levy said. In some cases, a straightforward translation is enough, but many times the process is a little more complex.
The best way to fix localization issues is to hear from the affected customers, according to Levy. Once a brand determines that something is off with a translated experience — for instance, if cart completion rates are significantly lower — they can reach out to users and get their thoughts.
Surveys can do a good job here, according to Levy. Brands can include specific questions about the general problem, whether that’s translation or localization, as well as text boxes for more specific feedback.
“Many people won't necessarily fill that out, to be fair, but for the folks that do, that's often a goldmine,” Levy said. “They'll often be very specific in saying, ‘Hey, you know, I was reading this, and the translation didn't make sense, and I didn't really understand what the brand was about.’”
What can’t solve the problem, at least alone, is AI. Only 1 in 5 consumers give credit to AI alone for strong localization, while 2 in 5 credit human involvement.
That’s not to say brands should eschew AI, according to Levy. The key is to use it as a starting point, not the end product. AI can efficiently translate a page, and then a native speaker can review the work and ensure the wording feels natural.
One company taking this two-pronged approach is Walmart, which uses AI to flag common search terms and sends that information to linguists to update the translation on the retailer’s platform. For example, this ensures customers in Chile and Mexico can each use their country’s word for “t-shirt” and have it parsed by the search engine.
“The idea here is, again, about what's going to feel natural to the user in their native language,” Yotam said. “That could be a simple fix, but in many cases it could be a little bit more complex.”
