The Role of Machine Assistance in Effective E-Commerce Translation

Machine assistance has become wildly popular and widely used due to its perceived benefits that specifically boost efficiency. Tasks that could take humans a couple of minutes to finish may be completed by a computer in a matter of seconds. Taking multiple seconds may actually be considered slow for a computer.

We’re now seeing machine assistance become further integrated into the world of e-commerce as well. With machine assistance’s role in e-commerce translations growing rapidly, now is a good time to evaluate it better. By understanding machine assistance’s role and its limitations with regards to translation, e-commerce companies can wield it more effectively.

The Advantages of Machine Assistance in E-Commerce Translation

More e-commerce companies are using machine assistance for translation. They are doing so because there are real benefits there that can provide a significant boost to their business and their bottom line.

Let’s take the time to go over some of the main benefits of machine-assisted translation in the context of e-commerce. Check them out and see if they pique your interest.

High-Speed Translation Becomes Possible

First off, e-commerce companies like how fast machine-assisted translation generates results. Even if you put a jam-packed spread sheet of data in front of it, the program can still provide results quickly.

Machine-assisted translation does more than just halve the amount of time needed to input data. In some cases, the increase in speed goes well beyond that.

If you need to post several products in a hurry, machine-assisted translation can help you out greatly. Your customers and sellers will be pleased with how timely those posts go live.

Consistent Translations Are always Delivered

Companies appreciate how consistent machine-assisted translation is. Errors like miscalculations, misspellings, or misplaced punctuation marks don’t usually show up in entries translated by the computer.

People are more likely to commit those errors due to fatigue or carelessness. It’s nice to know that those errors can be eliminated by relying on machine-assisted translation.

Don’t underestimate how important it is to present consistent translations to your potential customers. The show of consistency is also a reflection of quality. That will definitely resonate with the shoppers browsing your online store.

Optimizing the Working Hours of Translators

With translators no longer having to worry about processing bulk entries quickly or checking for minor errors, they are free to work on more complicated matters. If there are specific entries that require more thought and attention, the translators will be able to focus on them. You can utilize the skills of translators more effectively by doing that.

Translators can also work more on refining the translation of your digital storefront as a whole instead of getting bogged down by simple tasks. Continually improving your e-commerce website is important and it would be great if translators could help with that.

The Disadvantage of Machine Assistance in E-Commerce Translation

Fast results that come with no mistakes are highly coveted by e-commerce companies trying to translate their storefronts for international markets. However, there are still limitations that affect machine-assisted translation in the context of e-commerce.

Inability to Recognize Brand Names

While translating an item description, the computer may run into a bit of a problem caused by the presence of a brand name. The computer may get tripped up especially if the brand name is composed of other commonly used words.

Because of the way the computer is supposed to work, it may not capitalize the first letter of the brand name. It may also fail to understand the proper context of the item description because it regards the brand name as common words simply put together.

The issue with brand names is something that can be addressed eventually. Early on though, the machine-assisted program you’re using could produce errors because of those brand names.

Boring Item Descriptions

In order to convince consumers to buy the products available via your digital storefront, you need to really grab their attention. Engage them with your text and give them a reason to continue learning about the product you’re selling.

People are well-equipped to do that because they understand how to appeal to the emotions of prospective buyers. Unfortunately, translation programs do not possess that ability.

Computers can also struggle when it comes to emphasizing main selling points. They may hit on those points occasionally, but it doesn’t happen often enough to be relied upon.

Machine-assisted translation can provide error-free product descriptions. At this point though, they still cannot formulate interesting ones.

Difficulty Connecting with Specific Markets

Machine-assisted translation is also imperfect because it cannot consistently produce item descriptions that connect with shoppers in your target markets.

There is simply no substitute for experiencing a culture in person. You are able to talk about it more eloquently and passionately when you’ve immersed yourself in it. Human translators can convey that emotion in writing but computers cannot.

Crafting product descriptions that resonate with a specific market is especially important if you’re selling local goods via your e-commerce website. Entrust the job of crafting those product descriptions to your human translators.

Machine-assisted translation is useful, but it cannot be deployed independently for the purposes of building an e-commerce website. Companies still need to partner with experts linguists and translators if they want to successfully enter international markets.

elionetwork employs linguists and translators across all five continents. They are well-versed in the cultures of their respective markets and they can use what they know to provide the highest quality translations.

Our translators can communicate with your target customers in their native tongue. They are capable of communicating a product’s value in a language that your target customers can recognize and understand.

The translators we employ also specialize in the field of e-commerce. Their extensive experience drawn from working on numerous e-commerce websites will prove immensely helpful when they work on your website. Count on our translators to convey the quality that only your digital storefront can provide.

Reach out to us at elionetwork if you’re interested in translating your e-commerce website. Check out our free trial as well so you can experience our services firsthand.