There are 19 different Amazon marketplaces around the world, covering 13 different languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Swedish to name a few! Amazon has tried to streamline the ability to sell across these marketplaces with features such as Fulfilled by Amazon international solutions. However, if your Amazon listings aren’t optimised in those countries, shoppers will struggle to find and understand your products, affecting your sales.
The best way to ensure your Amazon listings get seen on other marketplaces is to translate them into the right language! Here are our top tips when translating your product listings for Amazon marketplaces around the world. But first, what are the options…?
Amazon Marketplaces around the world
— with language!
- Australia – English
- Brazil – Portuguese
- Canada – English
- France – French
- Germany – German
- Italy – Italian
- India – English
- Japan – Japanese
- Mexico – Spanish
- Netherlands – Dutch
- Poland – Polish
- Saudi Arabia – Arabic
- Singapore – English
- Spain – Spanish
- Sweden – Swedish
- Turkey – Turkish
- United Kingdom – English
- United Arab Emirates – English
- USA – English
5 tips for translating your Amazon listings
— at a glance
- Perform keyword research in that language
- Create a translation checklist
- Hire a native speaker
- Use country-specific imagery
- Double-check the product specifications for that country
1. Perform keyword research in that language
Language is more than just translating the exact words from English into another language. Different countries have different grammar, idioms and terms for different things. This means how people search for products could also be different. It’s important to focus on translating your Amazon listings, but also optimising them for the other languages.
To do this, carrying out specific keyword research and curating a strategy for different marketplaces is a priority! Find what that consumer is searching for to ensure it is added into that country’s content as well as including it in the back-end.
This goes for different marketplaces that are in the same language too! English can differ massively from American English — just think dummy and pacifier!
2. Create a translation checklist
It’s surprising how much content goes onto an Amazon listing, which means it could be easy to miss something. We recommend creating a checklist of everything that needs to be translated to ensure that you cover everything!
Here is a basic translation checklist — but make sure you check what else goes onto your Amazon listings, such as ingredients or safety information.
- Title
- Bullet points
- Product description
- Legal disclaimer
- Image captions
- Amazon A+ content
- Amazon storefront and landing pages
3. Hire a native speaker
Like we mentioned above, languages aren’t just about words! Having a native speaker translate your listings will ensure that the language is correct. You don’t want to make the same mistake Amazon did when expanding to Sweden and use offensive language! They also ended up getting names completely wrong, such as ‘Need for Speed Payback’ becoming ‘Do You Require Speed: Refund’.
A native speaker will not only get the complicated grammar correct, but they’ll also know any tips and tricks to truly relate to your audience using language that they understand — including slang or other funny idioms to help them relate!
4. Use country-specific imagery
When we say country-related imagery, we don’t just mean to change the text on the images to match the language — although this is important too! By this, we mean to make sure that the entire image reflects the country you are targeting. This can be with icons that they use, country-specific awards they have won, and using native models in the lifestyle imagery.
For example, we recently translated the Amazon listings for Octasmart mattresses and toppers into Japanese. We wanted to make sure that our images connected with the audience. To do this, we adapted the lifestyle imagery that we used to reflect Japanese people and their homes.
Take a look at how these images changed from the Netherlands to Japan 👉
5. Double-check the product specifications for that country
Before you do anything to optimise your Amazon listings for other marketplaces, you need to make sure that you can sell your products overseas as they need some adjustments. Whether it’s a food and drink item that needs its recipe changed, vitamins or supplements that need a specific label to match certain laws, or a product whose sizes need to be adapted to work for that country.
Sticking to the example of Octasmart, it creates high-end mattresses and mattress toppers that are sold all over the world. However, different countries sleep differently, having different standardised sizes for their beds. This meant that each of Octasmart’s Amazon listings had to reflect the correct sizes for that country.
Adding your inventory to other Amazon marketplaces can be a daunting task, but can also be hugely beneficial when done right. Here at marketplace amp, our team of Amazon experts can create a successful cross-border strategy and help with the set up and management of Amazon marketplaces around the world. Along with our array of native translators and designers, we ensure all content is translated correctly and optimised to amplify sales wherever you decide to start selling your products! Contact us today to find out more about our Amazon translation services or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for daily industry updates.
