Polaar

Polaar, a French skincare brand cosmetics brand sourced from the natural resources of the Arctic Circle, needed an online store available in multiple languages to keep up with its growth plans.

Following a CMS migration to Shopify and having previously struggled with manual website translation processes, they decided to find a website translation solution that suited their needs and budget.

Breaking into English-speaking markets was a big priority for the team, so adding English was essential. Alongside this, they also added German as the brand started its expansion in the country.

They needed a multilingual website in order to expand into the European market. Their initial plan was to create an English-language website for maximum appeal, but as they quickly realized, the German market would require special attention, so they decided to add German as well.

Overcoming previous pain points

Multilingual was previously a laborious process for the team at Polaar. They used to manage it manually, meaning they had several stages to follow before getting the translations back and uploaded to the website.

A significant factor in choosing Weglot was to eliminate both the time (and budget) associated with the traditional stages of website translation, including the agency brief, proofreading, validation, and implementation. This method proved too resource-heavy for the team which couldn’t keep up with their ongoing content demands.

When it came to selecting a website translation app, Polaar had to check three boxes:

• A straightforward installation
• Instant translation in the form of machine translation
• But importantly, full editing control over these translations

Multiple languages, on autopilot

Weglot was recommended to them by their web agency and with it matching their requirements it was a no brainer. Weglot adapted to both their needs and notably their budget.

In addition to Weglot’s automated process for launching languages, they no longer had to go through translation agencies as they now reviewed translations internally, which was another budget-saving measure.

A stand-out feature – machine translation – was a huge factor in the reduction of their internal workload. Having instant translation meant that new products could be launched in multiple languages quickly, and any changes made to the original language version were automatically reflected on the translated version.

An effortless translation workflow

Originally the team at Polaar was skeptical about using machine translation. Their reservations were that the quality wouldn’t be what they needed and that they’d have to do a lot of manual translations.

However, this was far from reality. In 90% of cases, the machine translation met their translation quality requirements and didn’t need editing. In the other 10% of cases, they made small manual edits through Weglot’s visual editor. This gave them the context of where exactly the translation was on their site.

In addition, the glossary feature reduced the number of manual edits they needed to make by adding terms specific to their brand, such as names of products and active ingredients in their skincare lines. This meant repeat translations were kept to a minimum.

“The ability to add specific terms related to our brand to the glossary feature was very useful and avoids us having to do repeat work.”

International SEO impact

As skincare is a competitive industry, the ability to translate metatags for improved SEO visibility was also crucial for the team at Polaar. It was another aspect of Weglot they hadn’t realized would be so beneficial, as the words that aren’t visible on the website play a huge role in how pages and products will be ranked internationally.

“Since adding Weglot to our site in February, US organic traffic has more than doubled.”

Translating their pages from French into English gave them visibility fast. Having added Weglot in February their results for the US market were impressive. Their organic traffic quickly increased and so too did the number of keywords ranking in English.

This was also helped by marketing efforts in the US market with their products added to a popular beauty box.