If you want to scale your E-Commerce store, you must go global and translating your store into multiple languages becomes non-negotiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people might think that English is a well known language and people will buy, even if it’s not their native language\u2026 but this couldn’t be further from the truth. (only a small percentage of non-English speakers will buy products from English-only stores)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is only one of the mistakes E-Commerce stores make when scaling into foreign countries, and today we will talk about the worst 5 mistakes stores make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the points will be based upon actual research and studies, so stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multi-Language Is Non-Negotiable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"E-Commerce](\"https:\/\/ovesio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Global-E-Commerce-Market-Value-visual-selection.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nGoing multi-language is a must, and there is absolutely no debate around this topic. Especially in area like the European Union where you cannot even operate as a business if your store is not in the local languages where you want to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The European market is worth more than $6T and it’s definitely not a negligible amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To put this in context, that’s 71% of the US market, so you can almost double your potential market just by selling in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plus, if you sell in French, it means you can also repurpose that translation for Canada, and since you sell in Spanish, you will be able to repurpose that for Mexico and Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You just added another $4T to your potential market, with minimal effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Asian market is also huge, being evaluated at about $8T\u2026 so you’re missing out on a lot of traffic and sales, by selling only to English speakers from the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\nData On Why Multi-Language Is A Must For E-Commerce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to a study done by BigCommerce in April 2025 on the importance of multi-language in E-Commerce<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n“English-only websites reach less than 25% of internet users worldwide\u200b. Leading ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce recognize this need and offer solutions for multi-language stores”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The exact same BigCommerce studies mentions a Gallup survey on language preferences<\/strong> that reveals the following shocking findings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- 9 out of 10 Internet users<\/strong> said that whenever given a choice, they preferred to visit a website in their own language<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 19% never browse in a foreign language<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 42% never make any purchases in languages<\/strong> other than their own.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
A survey from CSA Research (July 7, 2020) on Multi-Language & Purchasing Behavior<\/a> revealed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- 65% prefer content in their language, even if it\u2019s poor quality<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 67% tolerate mixed languages on a website<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 73% want product reviews in their language, if nothing else<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 76% prefer products with information in their own language<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
What shocked me the most is the fact that, just by having some poor quality translations, you can boost your traffic and sales so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a study by Shopify on Multi-Language & Ecommerce Localization<\/a>, translation increases retailers\u2019 conversion rates by 13% on average.<\/strong> and this is without taking into account the traffic boost from Search Engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSearch Engines like Google serve sites in local languages with a priority because they are more relevant to the user and Google will offer them a better user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unbabel published a guide on optimizing your E-Commerce Sites for Multi-Language<\/a> in which they stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nProviding valuable and localized content establishes trust and credibility with your international customers, leading to higher search engine rankings and increased conversions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It’s safe to say that you cannot get to the next level in E-Commerce without multi-language, and now you also know why it is so important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s get into the 5 big mistakes you must avoid when scaling with multi-language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mistake 1: Spending Too Much or Too Little<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The first mistake E-Commerce stores make when scaling with multi-language is spending too much or too little on translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some stores translate everything with DeepL, ChatGPT or any other AI translation tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other stores opt for human translators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both options are bad, but let’s take them one by one and let me explain why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human Translators<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you have tons of money at hand and you don’t mind spending tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions, on translating your store\u2026 go with this option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The standard cost for a translation, from actual professionals, from English to German (the biggest E-Commerce market in Europe) will cost you about $0.29 per word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
YES! You read that right, they charge per word, and that’s the standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other translators charge per page, but the most common pricing structure is per word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most E-Commerce products will have a product description of about 150 to 300 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s go with 150 for the sake of simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To translate only one product, it would be $43.5, which doesn’t seem that much, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you do all the paper work to sell in Europe, I image you want to sell in all the countries, so one translation won’t suffice and you would need about 27 more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, the total cost for translating a product will be about $1,174.5, for only one product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The average E-Commerce store that’s ready to scale, usually have more than 1,000 products, so it can get quite expensive, super fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of our clients, ComputerShop.eu translated over 9,000 products in 27 languages (now they have 4,500 in stock because the other products sold out) and their average product description length is about 100 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If they were to hire a human translator, they would’ve spent about $7,047,000 which is INSANE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, they translated all these products for about $8,000 and not to mention the time they saved, because our AI Translation Tool (that also generated product description where they are missing) delivered the translation infinitely faster than a human translator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was not meant to be a plug for your product, that’s why I won’t add any links, it was just to show you that stores really have this problem with human translators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not to mention the revision. Let’s say you want to change something, the translator will charge you again, and you will have to wait again\u2026 and if you don’t provide the whole context, he won’t be able to provide a good output\u2026 and it’s just a headache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AI Translation Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIf I just complained about human translators up to this point, this doesn’t mean I will just praise AI translation tools because they are obviously worse\u2026 but there’s a catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
65% prefer content in their language, even if it\u2019s poor quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am not saying AI translation tools are good, most of the time they are not even good enough to use, but sometimes they give great results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main problem with them is not the cost, but it is their reliability. Sometimes the output is just on point, and sometimes it is completely off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Ovesio, we were able to collect tons of data on the reliability of AI translation tools, and the results will shock you. Tools like DeepL or ChatGPT are not even close to being the best ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’re looking to learn more about the best AI tools, here’s an article for you: What is the best AI translation tool for marketing?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the ideal scenario, if you want to go with AI translation tools, instead of human translators, you would need some sort of algorithm that uses multiple translators at the same time, and then picks the best parts from each translation, and only then compiles the most accuracy one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, we do this at Ovesio, but that’s a conversation for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are here to talk about mistakes done when scaling with multi-language.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nGoing multi-language is a must, and there is absolutely no debate around this topic. Especially in area like the European Union where you cannot even operate as a business if your store is not in the local languages where you want to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The European market is worth more than $6T and it’s definitely not a negligible amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To put this in context, that’s 71% of the US market, so you can almost double your potential market just by selling in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plus, if you sell in French, it means you can also repurpose that translation for Canada, and since you sell in Spanish, you will be able to repurpose that for Mexico and Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You just added another $4T to your potential market, with minimal effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Asian market is also huge, being evaluated at about $8T\u2026 so you’re missing out on a lot of traffic and sales, by selling only to English speakers from the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data On Why Multi-Language Is A Must For E-Commerce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a study done by BigCommerce in April 2025 on the importance of multi-language in E-Commerce<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “English-only websites reach less than 25% of internet users worldwide\u200b. Leading ecommerce platforms like BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce recognize this need and offer solutions for multi-language stores”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The exact same BigCommerce studies mentions a Gallup survey on language preferences<\/strong> that reveals the following shocking findings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A survey from CSA Research (July 7, 2020) on Multi-Language & Purchasing Behavior<\/a> revealed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What shocked me the most is the fact that, just by having some poor quality translations, you can boost your traffic and sales so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a study by Shopify on Multi-Language & Ecommerce Localization<\/a>, translation increases retailers\u2019 conversion rates by 13% on average.<\/strong> and this is without taking into account the traffic boost from Search Engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Search Engines like Google serve sites in local languages with a priority because they are more relevant to the user and Google will offer them a better user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unbabel published a guide on optimizing your E-Commerce Sites for Multi-Language<\/a> in which they stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Providing valuable and localized content establishes trust and credibility with your international customers, leading to higher search engine rankings and increased conversions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It’s safe to say that you cannot get to the next level in E-Commerce without multi-language, and now you also know why it is so important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s get into the 5 big mistakes you must avoid when scaling with multi-language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first mistake E-Commerce stores make when scaling with multi-language is spending too much or too little on translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some stores translate everything with DeepL, ChatGPT or any other AI translation tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other stores opt for human translators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both options are bad, but let’s take them one by one and let me explain why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Human Translators<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have tons of money at hand and you don’t mind spending tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions, on translating your store\u2026 go with this option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The standard cost for a translation, from actual professionals, from English to German (the biggest E-Commerce market in Europe) will cost you about $0.29 per word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n YES! You read that right, they charge per word, and that’s the standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other translators charge per page, but the most common pricing structure is per word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most E-Commerce products will have a product description of about 150 to 300 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s go with 150 for the sake of simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To translate only one product, it would be $43.5, which doesn’t seem that much, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you do all the paper work to sell in Europe, I image you want to sell in all the countries, so one translation won’t suffice and you would need about 27 more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, the total cost for translating a product will be about $1,174.5, for only one product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The average E-Commerce store that’s ready to scale, usually have more than 1,000 products, so it can get quite expensive, super fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of our clients, ComputerShop.eu translated over 9,000 products in 27 languages (now they have 4,500 in stock because the other products sold out) and their average product description length is about 100 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If they were to hire a human translator, they would’ve spent about $7,047,000 which is INSANE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, they translated all these products for about $8,000 and not to mention the time they saved, because our AI Translation Tool (that also generated product description where they are missing) delivered the translation infinitely faster than a human translator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was not meant to be a plug for your product, that’s why I won’t add any links, it was just to show you that stores really have this problem with human translators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to mention the revision. Let’s say you want to change something, the translator will charge you again, and you will have to wait again\u2026 and if you don’t provide the whole context, he won’t be able to provide a good output\u2026 and it’s just a headache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI Translation Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If I just complained about human translators up to this point, this doesn’t mean I will just praise AI translation tools because they are obviously worse\u2026 but there’s a catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 65% prefer content in their language, even if it\u2019s poor quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am not saying AI translation tools are good, most of the time they are not even good enough to use, but sometimes they give great results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main problem with them is not the cost, but it is their reliability. Sometimes the output is just on point, and sometimes it is completely off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Ovesio, we were able to collect tons of data on the reliability of AI translation tools, and the results will shock you. Tools like DeepL or ChatGPT are not even close to being the best ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re looking to learn more about the best AI tools, here’s an article for you: What is the best AI translation tool for marketing?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the ideal scenario, if you want to go with AI translation tools, instead of human translators, you would need some sort of algorithm that uses multiple translators at the same time, and then picks the best parts from each translation, and only then compiles the most accuracy one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, we do this at Ovesio, but that’s a conversation for another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are here to talk about mistakes done when scaling with multi-language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Mistake 1: Spending Too Much or Too Little<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![](\"https:\/\/ovesio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Frame-64-1.png?v=379611\" "\\"AI")
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