Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform that provides online merchants with a flexible shopping cart system. It is also an ecosystem of hundreds of technological partners and extensions that allow users to build custom integrations and keep the platform updated and relevant at all times.

Magento rightfully prides itself on offering complete design and functionality control for online stores, allowing users to customize their sites to fit their needs. But for true customization, and to ensure customers experience the best online service possible, all content needs to be relevant and accurate, in each and every language.

According to CSA, providing an accurate description in the buyer’s native language doubles the conversion to sales — an incredible statistic indeed. But a simple translation is not enough. Sending large swathes of text through Google Translate may look okay, and descriptions might appear correct to non-native speakers, but your customers will not be impressed. The meaning and relevance are lost, as is the trust and connection with the consumer.

Given that on average 70% of customers abandon their online shopping carts at some point during the buying process, it’s important that poorly translated text isn’t a contributing factor. This is a particularly tough challenge for sellers with many diverse products, which calls for constantly evolving descriptions.

Recognizing the challenges that content curators and creators face when it comes to foreign languages, Smartcat has developed the Smartcat Translation Manager extension for Magento stores. Smartcat itself is a platform that — among other things — provides a handy online editor to work on translations. Actual contributors can be either the company’s own in-house/community translators or professionals from Smartcat’s freelancer marketplace. Thus it provides the key to accurate translations on whatever massive scale you need.

So how does it work? The first stage is to visit the Magento marketplace and locate the Smartcat plugin. It’s a quick and easy download, and the installation process requires no additional programming but does require the user to have a Smartcat account, as translation jobs will be sent to Smartcat for completion. You can create a Smartcat account here. The complete user guide to the extension is available here.

If you choose to outsource translation itself, the translation file will be assigned to one of Smartcat’s 250,000+ translators, operating in multiple languages, and be returned directly back to the Magento platform. The Smartcat dashboard is an excellent way to keep track of jobs and large numbers of ongoing projects at once. The text is returned ready formatted, preventing the usual errors that occur when moving text between programs.

Both the extension and Smartcat itself are all free of charge, and costs are only incurred on an individual job-by-job basis when using the services of a translator from the Smartcat marketplace. If you don’t want to use the Smartcat marketplace, you can assign projects to in-house or community translators for completion and then have them returned into Magento. The obvious benefit is that you don’t have to pay for an outsourced the translation, providing the flexibility to pick and choose which projects are externalized.

The Smartcat plugin is an excellent way to translate Magento store content. Its user-friendly platform connects you and your company to a host of language, translation, and localization industry professionals to make sure your content is accurate and engaging. Improving and enhancing product descriptions with the Smartcat plugin will allow you to connect more efficiently with the customer and boost your sales.

Don’t let language become a barrier to reaching new international audiences — take your business global today with the Smartcat Translation Manager extension.