Translation or localisation: which one does your business need? 

Your product works. Your website converts. Your campaigns drive revenue. Then you launch in Germany or Brazil, and suddenly the results disappoint. Traffic arrives but bounces, prospects abandon their carts, and your brand voice falls flat. 

The problem is rarely your product; it’s how your content has been adapted for a new market. In some cases, a precise translation is enough to convey information. In others, success requires deeper adjustments of tonal register, visual cues, or cultural expectations. 

Most businesses simply call all of this “translation,” and that’s perfectly normal. In practice, language professionals distinguish between translation and localisation, but you don’t need to master the terminology or determine the right approach on your own. A good language partner will guide you to the right approach. This article will help you understand how the choice affects brand perception, trust, and conversion rates. 

The difference between translation and localisation 

Translation is the process of converting written content from one language into another while preserving meaning, terminology, and intent as precisely as possible. This precision is essential for instruction manuals, legal contracts, compliance materials, scientific documents, and technical specifications. In these contexts, accuracy and consistency matter more than tone or emotional nuance. 

Localisation, by contrast, goes beyond linguistic transfer. It involves adapting content and sometimes an entire product or service, to meet the cultural, behavioural, and functional expectations of a specific target market. This function includes adjusting tone of voice, adapting cultural references, modifying images, changing formats, aligning payment methods, adapting UX structure, ensuring regulatory compliance, and optimising for local search. 

Before localising, businesses should internationalise (i18n) their products, designing them to accommodate different languages, text expansion, and cultural variations from the start. 

With translation, you convert a message. With localisation, you adapt the entire experience around that message. 

A realistic note on machine translation 

Tools like Google Translate and DeepL have improved significantly. For internal communication or understanding the general meaning of a document, they can be useful. However, raw machine output is rarely appropriate for consumer-facing content. It doesn’t reliably capture brand voice or the cultural nuance behind persuasive messaging. When content is meant to connect with customers and build credibility, human expertise remains essential. 

SwissGlobal’s secure machine translation with post-editing service is the ideal solution in such situations. You’ll receive a machine-translated text that’s been edited and validated by linguistic experts in line with ISO 18587. 

When words aren’t the real issue 

Consider a few international retail expansion failures that had little to do with language. 

When Amazon launched in Sweden in October 2020, it relied on machine translation without adequate human oversight. The result was a catalogue of errors: products featuring rapeseed were described using the Swedish word for violent sexual assault (våldtakt); a frying pan was labelled as an item for women; the Argentine flag appeared instead of the Swedish flag; and a cat-themed hairbrush was rendered with vulgar slang for female genitalia. The issue wasn’t translation alone. It was the failure to invest in proper localisation and cultural validation. 

Walmart’s expansion into Germany provides an older but instructive example. After entering in 1997 through acquisitions, Walmart exited in 2006 with estimated losses of $1 billion. The company’s American-style customer service practices, including mandatory smiling and morning pep rallies, clashed with German cultural norms that value efficiency and privacy over overt friendliness. German labour courts ruled against Walmart’s employment policies, and the company’s predatory pricing strategy violated German competition law. 

By contrast, McDonald’s adapted successfully in India by redesigning its entire business model. The company eliminated beef and pork entirely, created separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian kitchen facilities, and developed the McAloo Tikki burger specifically for the Indian market. By 2023, McDonald’s operated over 400 restaurants in India, serving approximately 500 million customers annually. 

In each case, market fit determined success more than language alone. 

Strategic application: when to use translation or localisation 

Translation alone is sufficient in the following cases: 

• Technical documentation requiring consistent terminology
• Legal contracts and compliance materials requiring an exact content match
• Regulatory filings following standardised formats
• Internal communications not intended for external audiences
• Scientific content relying on standardised international terminology
• Patents and intellectual property documentation requiring filing precision

Even “translation-only” projects often require minor localisation elements, such as converting units of measurement or adapting date formats. 

Localisation becomes essential for: 

• Marketing copy, websites, and product descriptions that require emotional resonance. 
• App interfaces and UX content where buttons and error messages must feel natural. For example, “add to cart” in the United States and “add to basket” in the United Kingdom. 
• E-commerce environments where local payment methods and product descriptions affect conversion. 
• High-stakes creative campaigns. 

UX content provides a clear example of why a translation or localisation strategy matters. Short interface elements must feel natural in the target language. Languages such as German often require 20-35% more space than English, affecting layout if not planned for in advance. Click here to read more about the importance of a proper website translation. 

The business case 

Research from CSA Research demonstrates why translation or localisation decisions directly impact revenue. Their Can’t Read, Won’t Buy study of 8,709 consumers across 29 countries found that 76% of online shoppers prefer purchasing products with information in their own language, and 40% will never buy from websites in other languages. 

Similarly, a Flash Eurobarometer survey conducted for the European Commission in 2011 found that while 90% of Internet users in the EU prefer to access websites in their own language, 55% occasionally use a language other than their own when online. However, 44% feel they’re missing interesting information because websites aren’t in a language that they understand and only 18% buy products online in a foreign language. 

Thus, language accessibility influences conversion behaviour. Localisation also supports search visibility. Publishing content in multiple languages increases discoverability in local search results and allows businesses to compete in local markets rather than only globally in English. 

So, does your business need translation or localisation? 

Most growing businesses require both, applied strategically. Choosing between translation or localisation depends on your content type, audience, and commercial objectives. 

Translation and localisation aren’t competing services. Translation is the foundation. Localisation builds on that foundation when market adaptation becomes commercially important. 

At SwissGlobal, we help businesses determine whether translation or localisation is right for each type of content. Whether the priority is technical accuracy or full market alignment, the objective remains the same: clear communication that performs in its intended context. 

Contact us today for your business’s translation and localisation requirements.