Business Translation Case Studies

Case Study

When Price Isn’t the Price: How a Global Retailer Finally Chose the Right Translation Service

Authored by

Christakis Christodoulou

Date

December 18, 2025

Industry

Retail & E-commerce

Context and background

The client was a fast-growing retail company operating an international e-commerce platform, preparing for a phased expansion into Southeast Asian markets. Their catalog included tens of thousands of SKUs, with new products added weekly and seasonal updates affecting descriptions, attributes, and promotional content. Translation had already become a recurring operational task rather than a one-time project.

Internally, translation was viewed as a controllable cost line. Procurement was instructed to secure the lowest possible per-word rate to keep expansion budgets predictable. Several translation service providers were shortlisted based primarily on price and location, with limited consideration for technical integration or scalability.

At the time, content updates were managed through a Product Information Management (PIM) system, while translation requests were handled manually via spreadsheets and email. No centralized translation memory existed, and terminology varied across categories and markets.

Challenge

The core challenge was not the cost of translation itself, but the hidden cost of inefficiency. Despite selecting a low-cost vendor, the retailer faced persistent operational issues:

• Inconsistent terminology in different markets and product categories

• Repeated translation of identical or near-identical content

• Delays caused by manual file handling

• Errors introduced during frequent content updates

• Increasing internal QA workload

• Growing frustration from regional marketing teams

Weekly product launches magnified these problems. Each update triggered a new translation cycle, often involving previously translated content. Because no translation memory or automation was in place, the company paid repeatedly for the same work.

What looked affordable on paper while looking for the best translation service online, was becoming expensive in practice. Translation costs were rising quarter over quarter, while time-to-market slowed and internal confidence in localized content declined

Approach & Solution

The turning point came when TheWordPoint helped the Customer to reframe the question. Instead of asking “What online translation service offers the lowest rate?”, the Customer asked “Which translation service can support our operating model with cost-effective solutions?”

A professional translation service was selected based on three criteria:

System Integration Capability

Ability to integrate directly with the client’s PIM system. This removed manual file preparation and enabled automated content handoff between systems.

Translation Memory and Terminology Management

A centralized translation memory was created from legacy content, capturing previously translated descriptions, attributes, and category language. A controlled terminology base was established for product names, materials, sizing conventions, and compliance-related phrasing.

Workflow Designed for Volatility

Instead of treating each update as a new project, the provider implemented a continuous localization workflow. Small weekly changes flowed automatically through the CAT tool, triggering translation only for genuinely new content.

From a technology standpoint, the approach combined CAT tools, PIM integration, automated QA checks, and human review focused on brand tone and cultural relevance. No machine translation was used initially, the priority was stabilizing quality and eliminating duplication.
The justification was simple - if the company could stop paying for the same sentence twice, the effective translation cost would drop regardless of the per-word rate.

Results

Within the first two quarters after implementation, measurable improvements emerged:

• Translation memory reuse rates exceeded 60% for recurring content

• Average turnaround time for weekly updates dropped at 25-30%

• Internal QA workload was reduced as consistency improved

• Terminology disputes between regional teams declined

• Overall translation spend decreased organically, without rate renegotiation

Most importantly, cost predictability improved. Instead of facing volatile monthly invoices tied to volume spikes, the retailer gained a stable translation cost curve aligned with actual content growth.

Conclusion & Lesson learned

What began as a cost-reduction initiative revealed a deeper understanding og translation procurement. By focusing on workflow optimization rather than unit pricing, the Customer achieved both better quality and lower total spending. Sometimes paying more per word means spending less overall, when you're paying for value, not volume.

Translation Cost control comes from:

• Choosing a translation partner who understands your content lifecycle
• Investing early in translation memory and terminology management
• Integrating translation workflows directly into core systems
• Measuring total cost over time, not price per word