Integrated multilingual solutions for international retail
How a centralised platform turns multilingual content production into a growth driver for a retailer ?
The background: a European retailer facing the challenges of multilingual expansion
Our client is a fast-growing European retailer, operating in 5 to 6 countries through physical stores and digital channels (its own website and marketplaces). This international presence involves producing content in 6 to 8 languages.
The business is characterised by strong seasonality and a rapid turnover of the product range. Each season brings 4,000 new products requiring multilingual regulatory labelling, merchandising materials for retail outlets, product sheets for the e-commerce site and marketplaces, as well as training materials for international sales teams.
The strategic challenge: maintaining the quality and consistency of multilingual communication across all channels, whilst keeping pace with the increasingly tight production deadlines imposed by the sector.
The diagnosis: a fragmented organisation that is holding back performance
The initial audit revealed a siloed organisation, in which each department managed its own language requirements independently, using its own service providers. This fragmentation led to a number of major problems that had a negative impact on costs, lead times and quality.
The lack of terminological governance
Without a centralised reference system, inconsistencies in terminology were common. The same product could be described differently depending on the medium: the label, the website and the catalogue did not use the same terminology. This dispersion meant that teams had to devote 1 ANDP solely to the manual verification and harmonisation of content, a tedious task that could have been avoided with a shared repository.
Bottlenecks in the production line
Translation deadlines were consistently putting pressure on product launch schedules. To meet deadlines, the teamsmarketing, merchandising and e-commerce were forced to plan ahead with product information were still incomplete, which inevitably led to costly errors: reprinting labels, urgent corrections to web pages, and sometimes even delays in getting products onto the shelves, which had a direct impact on sales. These errors were estimated to cost €40,000 a year.
A technical ecosystem disconnected from linguistic processes
The client had a structured technical environment: a PIM (Product Information Management) system to centralise product data, a CMS (Content Management System) to manage the website, platforms to manage marketplaces, and an LMS (Learning Management System) for in-house training. But none of these systems was connected to the language management tools. The content to be translated had to be extracted manually, sent to various service providers via Excel or Word files, and then manually re-uploaded into each system after translation. This lack of integration between business tools and the language workflow led to frequent interruptions in the workflow, increased the risk of handling errors, and significantly delayed the time taken to publish multilingual content online.
EuropaTrad’s solution: a centralised platform and integrated workflows
The solution deployed is based on an integrated approach: a centralised platform that serves as the single hub for all multilingual content production, seamlessly connected to the client’s existing systems, accompanied by a complete overhaul of production workflows of translated and multilingual content.
Mapping data flows and defining workflows
The first step involved mapping out all content flows in collaboration with all stakeholders. This analysis has enabled us to define specific workflows tailored to each type of content: regulatory content requiring absolute precision and rigorous validation; marketing descriptions requiring creativity and cultural adaptation; and technical content requiring strict terminological consistency.
For each workflow, decision points, validation points and points requiring human intervention have been clearly identified and automated where appropriate.
A self-service portal to increase independence
A self-service portal now gives teams access to translation tools AI. However, this autonomy does not mean there is no oversight: quality is ensured by terminology glossaries developed specifically for the brand and style guides tailored to each language. This combination makes it possible to drastically speed up production cycles for standard content, whilst maintaining a high standard of quality.
A modular professional translation service for strategic content
For high-value content – marketing campaigns, strategic product launches, sensitive communications – a professional translation workflow, also based on the IA, has been introduced with several service levels. This allows the client to tailor the level of linguistic refinement to the expected business impact, ensuring excellence where it really matters, whilst optimising costs on more factual content.
Terminology governance as the foundation of consistency
A systematic process of extracting, validating and continuously updating glossaries ensures consistency in translations across all media. Local teams play an active role in this process, contributing their cultural and linguistic expertise to refine translation choices and ensure relevance in each market. This living framework evolves alongside the company and its products.
Technical integrations that transform the user experience
The platform has been integrated with the PIM to automatically retrieve new product pages for translation, with the CMS and e-commerce tools to enable the direct publication of approved content, and with the LMS to facilitate the roll-out of multilingual training modules. This orchestration, which is invisible to end users, eliminates bottlenecks and significantly speeds up time to market.
The results: operational gains and a measurable commercial impact
Six months after the solution was fully rolled out, the results are measurable and exceed the initial targets. The impact is evident in three areas: operational efficiency, cost control and commercial performance.
A significant operational transformation
The teams have freed up the equivalent of one full-time post that was previously allocated to coordination and verification. Production cycles have been reduced by 40%, enabling us to consistently meet launch deadlines. Costly errors – such as reprints, urgent corrections and website updates – have fallen by nearly 75%, freeing up staff to focus on tasks that add greater value.
A convincing financial case
The annual investment in the platform and support services amounts to €90,000 (€40,000 for the platform subscription and €50,000 for additional services, including consultancy, terminology management and project management). This amount is a welcome replacement for the old system, which cost 18€0,000 per year for ad hoc translations, internal coordination and error management. Net operating profit therefore amounts to 90 €000 per year.
A game-changing commercial impact
The true return on investment is reflected in the sales figures. Thanks to multilingual communication that is more consistent, faster and better adapted to local cultures, our client reported a 5% increase in its international turnover. Based on a figure of €50 million, this represents €2.5 million in additional revenue, generating €750,000 in additional gross profit. In total, the annual net profit is close to €900,000, representing a return on investment of nearly ten times the initial outlay.
A sustainable organisation in the face of staff turnover
Beyond the figures, one organisational benefit stands out: the system’s sustainability. In an industry characterised by high staff turnover, having a structured framework, intuitive tools and robust guidelines ensures that quality is maintained over time. New recruits are up to speed more quickly, best practices are put to good use, and brand consistency is maintained despite staff changes.
Synthèse du retour sur investissement
| Indicateur | Montant annuel |
|---|---|
| SITUATION INITIALE | |
| Traductions dispersées (8 000 réf. × 10 €) | 80 000 € |
| Coordination interne (1 ETP) | 60 000 € |
| Erreurs et corrections | 40 000 € |
| TOTAL des coûts annuels avant intervention | 180 000 € |
| COÛT ANNUEL DU SERVICE EUROPATRAD | |
| Plateforme + Services | 90 000 € |
| ⇨ ÉCONOMIE OPÉRATIONNELLE NETTE | 90 000 € |
Impact Commercial
- Croissance CA international (+5% sur 50 M€) : +2 500 000 €
- Marge commerciale additionnelle (30%) : +750 000 €
This case illustrates how an operational constraint can be turned into a strategic advantage. A properly implemented multilingual management platform does more than just produce translations: it streamlines the organisation, ensures brand consistency and supports international growth.
EuropaTrad supported the client through this journey of development, from the initial fragmented state to an integrated language governance framework, aligning all teams around a common set of standards and optimised processes. The result is a more agile, more cohesive and more effective organisation on the international stage.
Let’s work together!