How To Avoid Translation Errors When Selling Overseas
You’ve decided to sell on Amazon Japan. Great. But now comes the obvious headache. YOU CAN’T SPEAK (or write) JAPANESE.
It can be stressful when you’re trying to sell products in a country where English isn’t the native language. You may find yourself wanting to go for “cheap and easy” solutions, such as using Google Translate or even paying a (non-experienced) freelancer to do the English to Japanese translations for you.
While initially appealing, these options often end up being costly mistakes both in terms of wasted money and time (and lost customers who don’t trust buying from someone who cannot write correctly in their native language).
We’ve got the lowdown on how to navigate through translation rip-offs when selling on Amazon Japan. Just carry on reading…
English to Japanese Translations
Be cautious of freelancer sites that offer very low cost services. Sure, they may look like they are a cheap and easy way of translating your Amazon product listings into Japanese, but this isn’t the case. The age-old saying “you get what you pay for” certainly rings true here. Using a freelancer could result in sloppy translations, meaning that you have to spend more time and more effort sorting out customer queries, as your translation made no sense in the first place. This could even result in your Amazon listing being suspended due to a high negative seller feedback score.
Google Translate is NOT your friend
The word order in Japanese is totally different than in English. What you type into translate in English will come out a complete mess in Japanese. The sentence structure will be totally off, words may not make sense in the context of the translated sentence, and often the meaning may be lost entirely. It’s really not worth the risk.
There are also different levels of politeness that need to be conveyed as a basic element of Japanese grammar – get this wrong and you will potentially offend customers (or you’ll lose new customers).
The best way to get Japanese translations
So, you hire someone to translate your Amazon listings from English to Japanese. How can you be sure that your copy is being written in a way that really sells your product?
Simply, you need to make sure the translators “know their stuff”. Here are some things you should be aware of:
There are three alphabets in the Japanese language.
Yes, three. Amazon runs on keywords. This means that for every word you translate to Japanese from English, there could be two additional, interchangeable keywords that could help you get your product sold.
If you’re using Google Translate or a second rate freelancer, you’re not going to get a fully optimized listing, as you will only be directly translating one of the words. Not only this, but you will pay a higher price for advertising as your product description will be seen as less relevant.
Someone “in the know” will be able to tweak your product’s story for the Japanese market.
What may be relevant when selling to a Japanese market may not be all that apparent in the English language. For example, when we were selling our baby car mirrors (see the big case study here) we make sure to mention that they are suitable for “Kei” cars as well as standard cars. This wouldn’t mean much in English, but in Japan “kei” is a category of small/light cars.
By including this keyword we saw a jump in conversions, which would have been missed by a non-native Japanese speaker. It’s little things like that, where being in the know about certain terms or categorizations in Japan that can really boost your listing sessions (AKA views of your listing) and conversion rate (and profit).
Summary
Hopefully, you have a better understanding of why it’s important to do your research and use a reputable service when you need translations from English to Japanese. Especially when setting up a listing on Amazon Japan. You know exactly what to look out for when avoiding translation rip offs and you are well on your way to getting your products sold on Amazon Japan.
Do you want our help?
Rising Sun Commerce can do your English to Japanese translations for your Amazon products. Get in touch and we’ll get the ball rolling.
WE SPECIALIZE IN:
- Amazon Japan Listing Creation & Optimizations
- Amazon Japan Advertising
Our goal is to help brands launch and grow sales on Amazon Japan.
PRICING SUMMARY
We want to make our pricing as clear and simple as possible, which is why we have fixed fees rather than complex commission based pricing or contact us for a quote links.
NEW LISTING SETUP OR OPTIMIZATION
$449 per product type + $30 for any additional variation
UNBOXING/ EXPLAINER VIDEO/ VOICE-OVER VIDEOS
$199 per video
ACCOUNT & ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT
From just $799/month or 5% of revenue
AMAZON JAPAN LISTINGS
LISTING CREATION / OPTIMIZATION PRICING
$449 per product type (Parent ASIN) + $30 for any additional variation (Child ASIN)
EXAMPLE PRICING CALCULATION
10 x product types with each product type having 3 colour variations.
- 30 products in total, 20 of which are classed as Child variations and 10 are classed as Parents
- (10 x $449) + (20 x $30) = $5090
Having a well written and keyword rich product listing is essential because:
- Shoppers need to be able to find your product on Amazon Japan.
- When they do find you product they then need to have confidence so they buy.
See a finished result for one of our clients on Amazon Japan - https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/product/B08RS5MKW5
This was quite a complex project with a lot of size and type child variations. But the effort was definitely worth it.
The Rising Sun Commerce Amazon Japan Product Listing Process:
We gather all the information needed to fully understand your product and brand. We need to understand your products' features and benefits in fine detail so that we can hone the copy of your listing. We can use your English Amazon listings as a guide, however Amazon Japan is VERY strict in the wording you can use and often your English listings would be rejected instantly.
2.
We conduct detailed keyword research using specialist software such as Helium10’s Cerebro tool to analyze the keywords used by your main competitors on Amazon Japan. We also use Amazon’s own Brand Analytics data to ensure we pull out all of the most important keywords. Finally, we manually read over your competitors listings to pick out common keywords.
3.
Our optimally written product listings are professionally translated by one of Rising Sun Commerce’s experienced native Japanese listing editors who carefully integrate the keywords from the extensive keyword research process as they translate your product listings - check out Shiori’s short video where she discusses a client's listing here.
4.
We annotate any text in your images into Japanese, because everyone knows that the images are one of the most important aspects of your Amazon Product Detail Page.
5.
We construct an upload (AKA flat) file and upload your listings to Amazon Japan. We complete as many fields as possible in the flat file to help with Amazon indexing and categorisation. We apply any keywords that are not integrated into the product listing into the Generic Search Terms (AKA back end search terms). Uploading the flat files to your Amazon Japan account can sometimes be a smooth process, but due to Japan’s quirks and glitches this can often be a bumpy process. We guarantee that your product listings will be uploaded to Amazon Japan, even if it takes multiple Seller Support cases and multiple revisions to remove and replace text or images to satisfy the Amazon Japan gods.
6.
We upload your Japanese specific images to Amazon Japan. This can be a complex process and often requires multiple attempts and Seller Support cases. It also requires Brand Registry access so there is additional admin required.
7.
Any appropriate listing videos will be annotated and/ or a voice over will be applied at no extra cost. The videos will be uploaded to your listings.
8.
Using your English A+ content as a guide we construct and upload A+ content for your product listings. Like the Product Detail Pages this can often be a tough process because Amazon Japan are irrationally picky about the words you can use. We have a database of banned words and phrases, but we are still surprised by Amazon when they pick up on a new term. Again, we guarantee your A+ content will be uploaded to Amazon Japan, no matter how long it takes.
9.
Finally, once the listing has been on Amazon Japan for a few days we do Keyword Index Checks to make sure the listings are correctly indexed.
The video below show how we make sure your products are fully indexed on Amazon Japan.
JAPANESE UNBOXING & VOICE-OVER VIDEOS
Using one of our trusted native Japanese creators we can commission custom unboxing videos for your products.
We ensure the creators discuss the main benefits and features of your product.
Alternatively, if you have a good promotional video in English, we can replace the English voice with a professional standard Japanese voice.
Having a video on your Amazon Japan product listing is a major benefit and helps show the shopper exactly what they will get and reinforces the main product selling points.
$199 per video