We have recently completed a major project for e-commerce translations to promote the Made in Italy to the World.
The project involved four languages, namely English, German, Spanish, and French.
Some Italian small craft businesses want to present their e-stores to global audiences using an innovative start-up company called Wowfit.
Wowfit is the start-up led by Emanuele Tebellini who aims to bring the circular economy together within the fashion market and to promote a new type of fashion based on sustainability.
The Covid Pandemic induced a necessary change in the strategy of the project ,which initially aimed at bringing Made in Italy around the world on board a fashion truck. Because of Covid this project suffered a setback and thus became E-commerce.
We worked side by side with Valentina Crucil, a strategic consultant who in March 2020 took over Itally when it was only an idea. Working as a team they created everything that is now standing, piece by piece.
E-Commerce translation is a process of taking your e-store contents in its original language and adapting it into other languages.
When managing a multilingual project, it is crucial to have good internal organization, especially in terms of resource management.
The project manager: creates a team of translators and proofreaders and becomes the liason between the client and the translators.
This specific project also included videos, brochures and product catalogs for each craf business involved.
And since translating is not just a mechanical process, the translators also used the images of the products on the craftsman’s website to have a good understanding of the essence of the product and adapt the description into another language.
The challenges encountered while translating were several, for example deciding whether to add or not explanations in a foreign languages that were not present in the Italian version or how to translate the brand names of the products.
For example, a craftsman says: “I chose Portoverde for its truly unique location.”
In the translations it was decided to add “the Portoverde tourist port” to better explain the location. In fact, Portoverde would not be immediately recognizable to a foreign audience.
If, for example, an Italian customer looking for a product on-line from a German craftsman finds the description “Meeresgeschopfe Silver bracelet” they would not feel any kind of emotion nor would they understand what the item really is.
But if, on the other hand, they read “Creatures of the Sea” Silver Bracelet they would have a completely different feeling and undestanding of the product.
We therefore applied the same method when translating from Italian into German and other languages.
So, the item Braccialetto in argento “Creature del Mare” was translated into Silberarmband “Meeresgeschopfe” in German.
The translation of videos was also an important part of this project. The craftsmen introduce themselves through a video in which they tell their story and their work in brief. In this case, subtitling was preferred to voice over: Read more on our dedicated article!
Subtitles give the audience a more authentic experience of the craftsman’s work and story, because they can hear the original voice. Since the videos have a strong emotional impact, it is important to give viewers the opportunity to hear the voice of the protagonist and this is an advantage of subtitling.
Do you wish to have your own e-store and need e-commerce translations? We will be happy to help you!