STAR TS Translation Services Blog

This month we have a guest article about eCommerce sales from our guest blogger Bob Curran of Buy4Now.ie.

Doing business internationally is always a challenge for companies, with language, technology and different buying behaviors globally. Bob is an expert in this field as over to Bob…

ECOMMERCE,  IS IT THE RIGHT MOVE FOR SMALL BUSINESS?

One of the biggest questions facing retailers today is whether or not to begin trading online with a transactional website.

Sure there are the usual arguments that your website is your most important calling card to prospective customers and a professional website inspires confidence in the consumer to do business with you, your website builds your brand, showcases your products, and is a more cost effective method of communicating with your customer base than traditional marketing.

Much talk has revolved around “ROBOS” (shoppers who Research Online but Buy Offline). All of these things are true but if you are still on the fence about the importance of Online shoppers and selling, these following hard facts are impossible to ignore:

According to the latest ComReg data newly published figures for the final quarter of 2009 show the total number of broadband subscribers at 1.44 million, a 20% increase year-on-year.  Mobile subscribers are the fastest-growing category, accounting for 467,000 subscribers, an increase of 51% on 2008 levels.

In 2009, the average internet user was online for 13.2 hours a week, compared with 10 hours a week the previous year.

So as internet connections increase, the home becomes the social and shopping hub as more and more people are time poor and internet rich.
Some other benefits to consider before you enter the eCommerce realm are:

E-Commerce Lowers Business Costs

Business on the Internet does not require bricks and mortar or staff around the world, just a Web site and perhaps one central warehouse or location to pick orders from.
E-Commerce Is Accessible Anywhere, Anytime.

The audience on the Internet is 24×7.  A business on-line is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Customers can shop at their convenience. The cash register is open all day and night, even while the business owner is sleeping.
E-Commerce Strengthens Customer Service and increases Customer loyalty.

A Web site allows a business to address its customers on a personal level.  How often do you learn all about a business upon entering a store? How often do you walk away with a free sample? A Web site allows businesses the opportunity to give customers information about their company while offering something of value.

For example, a company selling cooking utensils could offer the visitor recipes, a software company could provide interesting articles about the industry, a music store could offer sound bites of new music. By reading about the history and background of a company, the customer feels they have chatted with the owner. Personalizing a company creates customer loyalty. A Web site is soft sell. It gives the business an opportunity to market itself while gently leading the audience to purchase its products.

Case in point

Sheilas Flowers is a family run business whose headquarters are based in Bray, Co. Wicklow.    Nigel Banks is the MD of Sheilas and according to Nigel he realised early on the flower business was better suited to online sales his answer was to close the company’s high street shops and join the Buy4Now online family in 2002.

Some of the main challenges we faced were related to processing the orders, managing stock and getting orders ready for delivery, we quickly realised that another level of infrastructure was required to manage the online store and its orders  & proceeded rapidly to implement new IT systems .

“We were able to re-allocate existing staff to deal with the additional business and maintain the site to keep it fresh”.

“The current website which is hosted by Buy4Now Technology group,  is now fully integrated with our own in-house order processing software.”

Sheilas Flowers was a true trendsetter when in 1988 they became one of the 1st flower shops to have a website. For other retailers the question is still whether or not to trade online remains but the answer should in most cases be yes.

Footnote:
Sheilas are Ireland’s only florist to be awarded Interflora’s “Ireland’s “Florist of the Year” 7 times.  Sheilas  Flowers offer same day flower delivery personally through-out Dublin, Bray and North Wicklow and can send flowers  through Interflora to  practically anywhere in  the World .

For more information on how Buy4Now can help you grow your online business visit www.Buy4Now.com or contact Bob Curran.

STAR translation helps its clients grow deliver website translation services in over 44 languages.

I see this week on Common Sense Advisory’s website the the EC has un-cancelled its tender for CAT tools. Quite an interesting story for those following translation technology and political institutions.

In 2010, the European Commission (EC) opened a tender for bids on computer-assisted translation (CAT) and translation memory (TM) tools to which a number of well-known industry firms responded. In July 2011, a “Corrigendum” was issued declaring the awarding procedure unsuccessful. The reason given? “None of the submitted tenders met the minimum quality criteria.” Understandably, the companies that invested time and cost in responding to the tender expressed disappointment.

For more information visit: Common Sense Advisory

This time a blog strictly for techies. We’ve been doing some work on our own website and SEO recently and one the big items of discussion is rel=canonical tag in HTML.

It is difficult to understand but important to know about and Google checks this stage for SEO. We found a great link on Matt Cutts website which explains how it works, how Google sees it and gives some advice on how to use it.

See Matt Cutts blog.

Something we are often asked as a translation provider is if we can advise companies on how to source products from China.

One company we have worked with who specialize in this area is Chirl Sourcing.

Chirl Sourcing is a leading,experienced and innovative expert in sourcing products and components for clients who want to improve their profits With offices in Ireland and China, Chirl sources high quality product at low cost. Currently our strongest growth area is the mobile phone accessory, and promotional industries, but also we are helping a lot of companies with new inventions from concept to a mass produced product.

Source Chinese Products with Chirl sourcing

An example of their work with SECA Innovations: Chirls client, SECA Innovations, the patent holder of the multihook tape measure, enlisted the help of Chirl to turn his patented  invention into a reality.

Within four weeks Chirl had assisted SECA Innovations in engineering the tape hook and designing an ergonomic housing unique to the multihook tape. Chirl were entrusted with turning sketches and prototypes into 3D drawings and renderings, tooling the product for manufacture, manufacturing the tape, strict quality control monitoring and distribution of this unique product.

Chirl’s objective is to save your company’s valuable resources, in  both time and money, and we do this by providing the following services:

•        Sourcing products to your specification
•        Contract negotiations including technical translations from  English to Chinese
•        Factory Inspections
•        Manufacturing Supervision
•        Shipment Inspections
•        Logistics & delivery
•        Value added Services

Chirl understands the differences in culture and business practices between Ireland and China. Due to this we can extract the value and quality that China has to offer. Our negotiations are direct with the manufacturers which are certified to ISO 9001 and / or industry specific certification.

For more information, contact Ray Doyle on 01-8774444 or email ray@chirlsourcing.com

Visit: Chirl Sourcings Website at http://www.chirlsourcing.com/

STAR provides English to Chinese Translation Services to help our clients grow their business in the Asian market.

If you are developing products to sell around the world you might be interested in Product Innovators Product Management course being run in London this September.

Product Innovator are delighted to announce that we will be running our first Product Management course in London on Tuesday 13th and Wed 14th September 2011, in Palladia Central Court, London.

Our intensive 2-day product management training course instructs on the product management lifecycle, and highlights processes & tasks that are essential for companies who are bringing new products or services to market, or who want to review a current product or service.

The Product Innovator approach is hands-on and practical.  Exercises and discussions are based around the needs of the participants, backed up with templates and examples, so expect to return to your office armed with tools, skills and concepts that will have an immediate impact on your business.

The cost of the course is £1,200: Group discounts also available.

For information on booking or to learn more about product management contact:

Product Innovator

Mary Ryan
Director, Product Innovator Ltd

P: +353.1.8875183; M: +353.87.2352798; W: www.productinnovator.com

STAR and its partners work with clients around the globe helping them position, translate and sell to an international audience.

If you are preparing to go global with a new product you should check out STAR’s Global Product Health Check for your products.

An excerpt of the free translation whitepaper is available on IrishDev.com