Why You Should Translate Your Etsy Shop

rawartletterpress on etsy

The Etsy marketplace is visited by potential customers all over the world- I've had the pleasure of working with customers in Poland, United Kingdom, and even India. Click to see all the places TrashN2Tees has been
Fostering a connection with your buyers is so important, in fact that is why many choose to buy handmade in the first place. Translating your profile, policies, and item descriptions gives the opportunity for meaningful exchanges regardless of the languages that we speak.

Even if none one is searching for your products on Etsy in German (highly unlikely though), guess who is? Google. Translating your shop can multiple your search engine results!

Here's what you need to know: 

• You can translate your listings by going to Your Shop > Info & Appearance > Languages.
• There is no additional charge to have a translated version of a listing.  
• In your listings, you can translate your title, description, and tags.  The Categories and attributes you select for your listing will automatically be translated to show the relevant version to shoppers based on their language preference. 
• Etsy is available in English and German (with promises of more languages to come!)  
• You can use free translation tools like  Google translate and Microsoft translator

I've just begun translating my listings, I focused first on my profile and policies. It can certainly be overwhelming to manually translate 100+ listings, and I keep thinking how wonderful it would be for it to automatically translate. Maybe one day right? Etsy in German has been available since September, I'm a little late to the show but I'd like to hear your experiences and your thoughts.

*Update* Google Translate did an 'ok' job converting however I went back to double check and some translations made no sense at all- making me sounds like a super wacko. Ya know more than the usual. Please be sure to double check the translations, or you could always opt to pay a professional. I saw an Artfire listing earlier where a fluent German speaker will translate for you $2/ listing.