French Website Localization

With the internet making the world ever smaller, an increasing number of retailers are looking to expand their reach overseas, through online sites that sell their goods. This means making their product descriptions, delivery options and terms and conditions available in a multitude of languages. 

A new client approached us recently for the translation of his agricultural business’s web presence. He had put delivery arrangements in place in order to open up his store (which sold seeds, fertilizers and tools) to the African market, so he needed his website translated into French. With an estimated 115 million French speakers in Africa, this was not a language he could afford to miss out on. 

The website contained nearly 200 descriptions of individual items, as well as pages on the company’s history and legal elements such as its return policy. Here at Tomedes we specialise in finding the perfect translator for each job, so for this client we found two individuals to get to work on the website. 

Our first translator was a former farmer from Gabon, so we assigned her the descriptions of the products to translate. Our second translator was based in Ivory Coast and came from a legal background, so we gave him the rest of the site, including the terms and conditions page and the shipping and returns policies. By spreading the workload in this way, we not only ensured that we provided the best mix of skills for the job, but we were able to complete the translation in half the time that it would have taken for just one person to do it. 

The client was on a tight deadline for the translation of his site. Having spent several weeks finalising the shipping arrangements for his company’s new African delivery market, he wanted to ensure that no more time was lost before he could start selling there. He asked us to translate the entire site within just one week – a mammoth task given the number of products that he stocked. 

We pride ourselves on exceeding our clients’ expectations whenever possible and this job was no exception. We turned the site around in just six days, with a few final queries dealt with on the morning of the seventh day. The client was overjoyed – within a week of first contacting us he was able to begin marketing his products to a whole new continent.