E-Commerce Localization Led by Sales Data
Your best sellers tell us what to localize first. Test markets with ads, prove demand with landing pages, then scale to products that actually convert.
Your e-commerce localization investment grows with your revenue.
Why Most E-Commerce Localization Projects Fail
Here’s what happens when brands localize without a strategy.
A DTC skincare brand wants to enter Germany. They translate all 800 product listings, their homepage, category pages, checkout flow, and email sequences. Total investment: €15 000. Six months later, German revenue covers maybe a third of that cost. The localization sits there, technically correct but commercially useless.
The problem isn’t the translation quality. The problem is they never proved Germans wanted their products in the first place.
International e-commerce works when you validate demand before you invest. Localized ads cost a fraction of full store translation. If the ads convert, you’ve got signal. If they don’t, you’ve saved yourself from a much bigger mistake.
Localize Everything, Hope for the Best
Typical Outcome
€15 000 spent. Revenue covers a third of it. Thousands of listings nobody's buying.
Test Demand, Prove Investment, Then Scale
Typical Outcome
Investment scales with revenue. Data drives decisions. No wasted budget.
How Smart E-Commerce Localization Works
We don’t start with your product catalog. We start with your paid media.
Test with Ads
Localize your top-performing ad creatives. Run them in target markets. Ad localization costs hundreds, not thousands, and tells you whether the market responds to your product and messaging. If your US ads crush it but your German ads flop, you know something needs to change before you invest further.
Prove with Landing Pages
Ads are working? Now localize the landing pages they point to. Keep the product pages in English for now. You’re testing whether localized touchpoints improve conversion rates. For most brands, this is where the data gets interesting.
Scale with Product Listings
Now you have real sales data. You know which products Germans actually buy. Localize those first. Your best sellers get human translation. Long-tail products get AI with review. Spend wisely by choosing the level of human involvement depending on content performance and conversion. Low performers stay in English or get deprioritized entirely.
Build the Experience
Once you have traction, localize the full customer journey. Marketing emails, abandoned cart sequences, post-purchase flows, customer support. This is brand building, and it makes sense once you’ve proven the market wants what you’re selling. Every bit of content you localize is like a puzzle coming together.
Test with
Ads
Localize top-performing ad creatives. Run them in target markets. Learn if the market responds.
€500-1 500Prove with
Pages
Ads working? Localize landing pages. Test whether localized touchpoints improve conversion.
€1 000-2 500Scale with Products
Now you have sales data. Localize products that actually sell. Best sellers first, then expand.
Based on catalogBuild the Journey
Traction established. Now localize emails, support, and the full customer experience.
Revenue-fundedWho We Work With
E-commerce localization isn’t one-size-fits-all. Different product categories have different challenges. Here’s where we’ve built the most experience.
DTC
Brands
You've built something that works in your home market. Now you're wondering if it translates. We help you find out without betting the budget on a hunch.
Categories
Consumer Electronics
Technical specs need precision. Marketing copy needs punch. Support docs need to actually help people. We handle all three in their language.
Categories
Sports & Outdoor
Seasonal cycles, frequent launches, performance-focused messaging. Localization that keeps pace with your catalog and speaks to enthusiasts in each market.
Categories
Home &
Living
High-consideration purchases where product descriptions do real selling work. We make sure your craftsmanship story lands the same way everywhere.
Categories
The E-Commerce Localization Stack
E-commerce localization isn’t one thing. It’s a stack of content types, each with different priorities and different approaches.
Ads & Creatives
Where most projects should start. Your ad copy, headlines, and creative assets adapted for local markets. Human transcreation for the messaging that drives clicks.
Landing Pages
The bridge between ads and products. Localized landing pages let you test conversion without translating your entire catalog. Full human workflow for content that needs to sell.
Product Listings
Titles, descriptions, specs, attributes. This is where volume gets real. Your top sellers get careful human attention. The long tail gets AI with expert review. We help you decide which is which based on your sales data.
Category & Navigation
The architecture of your store. Menu labels, filters, category descriptions. Often overlooked, but broken navigation kills conversions faster than bad product copy.
Checkout & Trust Signals
Payment screens, shipping information, return policies. This is where hesitation happens. Localized checkout flows reduce abandonment. Trust badges and policies adapted for local expectations.
Email & Post-Purchase
Welcome sequences, abandoned cart recovery, order confirmations, review requests. The customer journey doesn’t end at checkout. Neither should your localization.
Ads & Creatives
Where most projects should start. Your ad copy, headlines, and creative assets adapted for local markets. The messaging that drives clicks.
Human transcreationLanding Pages
The bridge between ads and products. Localized landing pages let you test conversion without translating your entire catalog.
Full human workflowProduct Listings
Titles, descriptions, specs, attributes. This is where volume gets real. Your top sellers get careful attention, the long tail gets efficient handling.
Tiered by sales dataCategory & Navigation
Menu labels, filters, category descriptions. Often overlooked, but broken navigation kills conversions faster than bad product copy.
Full human workflowCheckout & Trust
Payment screens, shipping info, return policies. This is where hesitation happens. Trust badges and policies adapted for local expectations.
Full human workflowEmail & Post-Purchase
Welcome sequences, abandoned cart, order confirmations, review requests. The customer journey doesn't end at checkout.
AI + human reviewWhere AI Works for E-commerce Localization (And Where It Doesn’t)
E-commerce generates volume. Thousands of SKUs, dozens of categories, constant product updates. Localizing everything with human translators would be slow and expensive. Using AI for everything would be fast and terrible.
The answer is matching your e-commerce localization approach to the content.
Testing Europe Before Going All-In
BYLT Basics is a US apparel brand known for quality essentials. After building strong momentum in their home market, they wanted to explore European expansion without localizing their entire catalog on a hunch.
The Problem
English ads in European markets were underperforming. The paid media team suspected localization would help, but didn't want to invest heavily without validation.
The Approach
Start small. Localize top-performing US ad creatives into Spanish to test that market. Human transcreation, not machine translation, because ad copy needs to land the same way the original did.
- Localized ad creatives, not the full catalog
- Native speakers who understood the brand's energetic voice
- In-house Spanish speakers validated the tone
- Fast turnaround to match creative team's pace
"We have to work super fast to keep up and stay ahead of the competition on the creative side. Even though you're on the other side of the world, we don't have to wait long for you to send over the assets. It's seamless with our flow."
Lean Localization for Price-Conscious Markets
A UK-based electric bicycle brand wanted to expand into Eastern Europe. Poland, Czech Republic, and the Baltics offered large markets with strong cycling cultures and price-conscious consumers looking for quality alternatives to premium German brands.
The Challenge
Their UK pricing was competitive against European giants, but that value proposition needed to land in local languages. Machine-translated product pages wouldn't cut it for considered purchases like e-bikes.
The Approach
Phased rollout: localized ads first, then landing pages when traction appeared, then product listings for the core bike range. Supporting content (sizing, warranty) came last once sales justified it.
- Started with ad creatives targeting cycling enthusiasts
- Expanded to landing pages when ads showed traction
- Product listings prioritized by actual sales data
- Small catalog meant every localization euro counted
Investment tracked with revenue. No Polish translations for accessories that hadn't proven demand. When a specific bike model took off in Czech Republic, that listing got priority. Budget followed outcomes.
We Plug Into Your E-commerce Stack
E-commerce localization only works if it fits your existing workflow. We’re not here to add another manual process to your operations.
Crowdin Integration
Crowdin has the largest library of e-commerce localization integrations on the TMS market. Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce. Content syncs automatically. You update a product, the change flows to us, translations flow back. No exports, no imports, no version confusion.
Direct Platform Connections
Already managing content in Shopify’s native tools? We can work with that. Prefer Phrase or Lokalise? We integrate there too. The goal is fitting into your workflow, not forcing you into ours.
PIM Systems
Managing product information in Akeneo, Salsify, or another PIM? We connect to your source of truth. Changes propagate to all your sales channels with consistent terminology.
Most products built on modern frameworks are already set up for localization. But even well-architected codebases have quirks. We’d rather find them early.
You update your store
Add products, change descriptions, update pricing
TMS detects changes
No exports, no uploads, no email chains
We receive content
Routed by your configured workflow
Translation delivered
24-48h for updates under 500 words
Content syncs back
Review and publish when ready
Platforms We Connect To
When we see problems
Startups that bootstrapped fast and hardcoded strings. Legacy codebases with years of accumulated shortcuts. Products that work perfectly in English because no one tested anything else.
We don’t ask you to fix everything before we start. We assess what’s there, work around what we can, and flag what will cause problems. If there’s a quick fix that saves hours of manual work later, we’ll tell you.
Whether your stack is ready or needs work, we’ll figure it out together. That’s what project managers are for.
Why Native for E-Commerce Localization
We’re not the only e-commerce localization partner out there. You’ve probably talked to a few already. Here’s why brands stick with us once they start.
Smart Spending Philosophy
We’re not trying to maximize billable words. We’re trying to maximize your return on localization investment. That means being honest about what needs human translation, what can use AI, and what shouldn’t be localized at all yet.
Multilingual
SEO
We localize product titles and descriptions with local search behavior in mind. Your German customers search differently than your US ones. We optimize for that.
Speed That Matches Your Pace
Product updates under 500 words turn around in 24 hours. Larger batches sync with your release schedule. Localization doesn’t become a blocker for your merchandising team.
Retail Calendar
Aware
We know Black Friday, Singles Day, and seasonal launches don’t wait. Priority queues for time-sensitive content when you need speed.
Honest
Recommendations
If your Shopify theme doesn’t support proper localization, we’ll tell you. If machine translation is good enough for your terms and conditions, we’ll tell you that too. We’d rather give you the right advice than pad the invoice.
Continuous Localization
New products don’t pile up waiting for a batch. Updates flow through automatically, so your localized stores stay in sync with your main catalog.
E-Commerce Localization Pricing
Pricing depends on catalog size, content types, and how many languages you need. A DTC brand testing one market costs less than a retailer scaling across Europe. We quote based on your actual scope.
Test the Waters
Validate demand before investing in full localization. Test whether your market responds.
Includes
- 5-10 ad creatives
- 2-3 landing pages
- 1 language
- Human transcreation
Launch Ready
Full localization for brands with a focused product range entering new markets.
Includes
- 50 product listings
- Core pages + checkout
- 2 languages
- Full human workflow
Scale Smart
Tiered approach for growing catalogs. Human for best sellers. AI + review for the rest.
Includes
- 200 products (tiered)
- Category pages
- Email sequences
- 3 languages
Full Scale
Continuous localization for large catalogs with ongoing product updates.
Includes
- 1 000+ SKUs
- PIM integration
- Continuous workflow
- 5+ languages
Ongoing Maintenance
Updates under 500 words fall under maintenance retainers with 24–48 hour turnaround. Larger batches quoted per batch. You pay only for new or changed content. Your localized store stays in sync with your main catalog.
Most clients start with 2-3 priority markets, prove the workflow, then expand. Volume discounts apply for large catalogs and multi-language projects.
Related Services
The store itself. Checkout, navigation, trust signals.
Best sellers get humans. Long tail gets AI.
The ads that drive traffic to your store.
Ready to Test Your Next Market?
You don’t need to localize everything to learn whether a market works. Start with ads, prove demand, scale from there. That’s smart e-commerce localization from the get-go.
FAQ
Common questions we get from e-commerce teams. If yours isn’t here, ask us directly.
Rarely. Most brands benefit from a phased approach. Start with ads and landing pages to validate demand. Then localize product listings based on what actually sells. Full catalog translation makes sense once you have revenue to justify it. We help you prioritize based on your data.
Sales data drives the decision. Your best sellers and hero products get full human attention because the copy needs to convert. Mid-tier products get AI translation with human review. Long-tail items that rarely sell can use AI only or stay in English. We work with you to define the tiers based on your catalog.
All the major ones. Shopify and Shopify Plus, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce. We typically connect through Crowdin, which has native integrations with these platforms. If you’re using a custom-built store, we can work via API or file exchange. If your platform makes localization unnecessarily painful, we’ll tell you honestly.
Depends on scope. A market test package (ads + landing pages) can be ready in a week. A starter store with 50 products takes 2-3 weeks. Larger catalogs we phase over months, syncing with your priorities. Updates under 500 words turn around in 24 hours once we’re working together.
We localize your product titles and meta descriptions with local search behavior in mind. That’s different from full SEO strategy, which involves keyword research, competitor analysis, and ongoing optimization. We offer SEO as an add-on service for brands that want deeper investment in organic search.
Yes. Amazon product listings, A+ content, and backend keywords can all be localized. The same tiered approach applies. Your best sellers get human attention, the long tail can use AI with review. We can work directly with your Amazon content or integrate with your listing management tools.
Glossaries and translation memory. We build a terminology database for your brand, including product names, materials, features, and style terms. This gets reused across every translation, ensuring “organic cotton” is always translated the same way. As your catalog grows, consistency compounds.
Yes, if done right. Localized checkout flows reduce abandonment. Native-language product descriptions build trust. Local payment methods and shipping information set expectations correctly. We’ve seen brands reduce customer acquisition costs by 20-30% after localizing key touchpoints. The impact depends on your starting point and target markets.
We can audit what you have, clean up inconsistencies, and build a proper glossary going forward. Sometimes it’s worth starting fresh. Sometimes existing translations just need alignment. We’ll assess and recommend based on what we find.
Yes. Most e-commerce brands have continuous content needs. New products, seasonal updates, promotional copy. Retainer arrangements give you predictable costs and faster turnaround. We structure these based on your typical monthly volume.
Carefully. Size names, color descriptions, material specs. These need consistency across your entire catalog. We set up attribute libraries that ensure “Navy Blue” is always the same in German, whether it appears on a t-shirt or a jacket. This prevents the chaos of inconsistent variant translations.
Scope and strategy. Website localization focuses on your marketing site: homepage, about pages, blog content. E-commerce localization includes all of that plus your product catalog, checkout flow, transactional emails, and customer support content. The phased, data-driven approach we use for e-commerce is specifically designed for stores with large catalogs and measurable conversion goals.