French and German E-Commerce Translation Services
France and Germany are major European markets
France and Germany are two of the most lucrative ecommerce markets in Europe. While it makes good business sense to try and tap into this potential, it’s not simply a question of translating your website word-for-word and hoping for the best. Instead, it’s wise to take a more culturally nuanced and localised approach, considering user expectations, preferences and habits. This is where professional French and German ecommerce translation comes in. Read on to discover the best approach to meaningful engagement in Europe, ultimately building trust and connections while driving growth.
Why create a French or German online store?
After the UK, France and Germany are Europe’s top ecommerce marketplaces. Having an online presence there allows your company access to these countries, known for their large, diverse and internet-savvy customer bases. Moreover, by creating a German online store, you’ll also allow engagement with customers from other German-speaking countries, such as Austria and Switzerland. That said, despite the immense opportunities these markets offer, both French and German consumers are known for their exacting standards and high expectations.
While France is home to a thriving online retail sector (the third largest ecommerce market in the EU and sixth in the world), French internet users are known to prefer websites in their native language.
Germany, meanwhile, boasts a strategic location geographically and is Europe’s largest e-commerce market. Here, consumers are considered meticulous and detail-oriented consumers, with expectations to match.
In addition to these two languages, we also offer e-commerce translation in six European languages.
How we work
Indigoextra has many years of experience supporting customers as they expand into France and Germany. We understand that the codes of online retail vary depending on location and that the best way to master them is to implement a strategic approach. This approach is founded on each audience’s communication preferences, expectations and online behaviour.
We begin by creating a translation dictionary, ensuring we use the keywords with the highest search volumes in the target language. To rank well in foreign language search engines, your website and online content must be optimized with relevant keywords and phrases. Our professional German and French ecommerce translation services integrate French SEO and German SEO best practices into your translation project to ensure you rank highly with search engines in your chosen location.
Translation isn’t just about swapping words. Sometimes the keyword that yields the most searches may be something entirely different in French or German – and may even be an English-language search term? This is particularly true for technical or scientific terms, highlighting the need for an understanding of both language nuances and search behaviour.
Indigoextra's service includes full technical website translation - recreating your site in additional languages, including all the fiddly bits. If your site is in WordPress or Drupal, we will use your existing CMS and the advanced tools they provide to make this possible. If you have a different CMS, let us know, as we will confirm what the best solution is.
Why choose Indigoextra?
Style
We deliver high-quality human translations that preserve the tone and intent of the original text. As they’re exclusively written by graduate-level copywriters and translators with at least five years of experience, we guarantee you’ll be impressed with their flair and originality.
SEO
As well as being faithful to the original, our translations are always optimised for Google. Our SEO translations pay close attention to the search terms your target audience is most likely to use and we can rapidly identify these for you. Google also values helpful, culturally relevant content, and this is an essential part of our service.
Speed
Indigoextra is proud of its quick turnaround times. We aim to respond to all enquiries within two business hours and can deliver large translations quickly without sacrificing the quality of content, allowing you to meet urgent deadlines. We always prioritise attention to detail, precision and unique content.
100% Human Translation
Recent years have seen a surge in AI-generated content online. All content that Indigoextra creates is written by humans, in their native language. It is then proofread by an experienced editor. This means not only is your translation original and unique, it’s also SEO-optimised and written to resonate with your target audience in the French- or German-speaking world.
Google can easily detect whether content is AI-generated or not and regularly treats AI content as spam, making it a poor SEO strategy.
Product descriptions
Commerce websites’ product descriptions are a crucial tool for persuading your audience that they need what you are offering. Equally, they need to be accurate and concise, delivering the required information, while preserving your brand’s voice.
The language of online shops should be easy to read and understand, reflecting regional preferences, for instance by using the preferred measurement units and currency. Similarly, it’s important to represent numbers in the expected way. Most European countries write numbers with commas instead of a decimal point (Germans would say 4,7 Millionen rather than 4.7 million), and separate hundreds with a space or a period, rather than a comma (37 000 or 37.000, not 37,000).
Product descriptions are also translated differently depending on the target audience. French online retail usually adopts a more descriptive, poetic tone, with an emphasis on elegance and storytelling. In Germany, however, the focus shifts to practicality and straightforward product descriptions that inform decision-making. Indigoextra’s professional translation service pays close attention to these preferences to ensure your translated content resonates – ultimately boosting conversion rates.
Videos
Video translation is a way of speaking directly to your audience – quite literally. While subtitles make your content understandable, they can be distracting and fail to capture the tone, nuance or emotional resonance of the original. Moreover, subtitling is bound by on-screen spatial constraints, which can be particularly problematic with German (thanks to its many compound nouns).
French tends to be longer than the equivalent sentence in English, due to more descriptive phrasing and grammatical differences that require more words to express the same idea. If your website includes a lot of video content, consider using a German or French voiceover service, to ensure you really connect with your audience. Discover what a French voiceover could do for your business.
Metatags
Thes small but often overlooked words are a fundamental part of French or German SEO when setting up a translation of your site. Leaving them in English will hinder your visibility on local search engines like Google.fr or Google.de. This means all the hard work translating your content will be for nothing!
Properly translating and adapting metatags for French and German search engines signals your site’s relevance and boosts its SEO performance. Most importantly, this makes your site discoverable by the local customers you want to attract.
We can quickly analyse your site, identify the optimal keywords to use, and write Metatags that help you rank high and have an outstanding Click Through Rate (CTR).
Get in touch
If you would like help with your French or German e-commerce translation, or for a free SEO audit, don't hesitate to contact us or book a Zoom meeting to rapidly kick start your project.
Client reviews - Multilingual SEO
"Martin and the team at Indigoextra have been amazing. After working with multiple SEO agencies over the past 20 years, I can confidently say they are the most friendly, knowledgeable, helpful (and amazingly also least expensive!) of all the agencies we've tried. Our rankings have increased steadily since we started with them, and Martin checks the website every month for anything we should improve on-page. Absolutely recommend!"
Francesca, Elizabetta
Client reviews - German SEO
"The process was smooth, and their team was able to adapt quickly to our specific internal changes and goals. They took the time to understand our business and tailored their services to meet our specific needs.
Our traffic tripled 50k to over 150k monthly visits in a year."RealAdvisor.ch
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