Entering the demanding German market is not impossible

If you are capable of running a successful online store on the Czech market, it is only natural you start to look around for new opportunities abroad. This was the case for one of our clients: TT Holding a.s., a seller of prefabricated windows (under the brand name Fenster Sofort) for new buildings or objects under reconstruction. The products are reasonably priced and of a high quality The goal of our client's foreign expansion was German-speaking markets, namely Germany and Austria.

Why Germany and Austria?

The German and Austrian markets present an attractive opportunity for every internet seller who wants to expand their business. Local prices are usually high, so many consumers prefer to buy from cheaper sellers abroad. The consumers are also willing to pay a higher price for high-quality products with good references and recommendations.

The Czech Republic has a good reputation in Germany and Austria. The Czechs are seen as suppliers of high-quality products for good prices, with excellent service and after sales care. Within this context, it is therefore simply not enough to have your website and online store in German – it is important to provide business communications, customer support and/or social media communications in German, too.

The process

Preparation and localization of the website and online store into German

The translation of the website and online store (in the Czech Republic: www.skladova-okna.cz) was not a regular case. The client firstly decided to translate the text themselves, which was carried out by employees of the company in their spare time. Unfortunately, this resulted in unusable text that was unsuitable for the professional presentation of the company in German speaking markets.

The translation needed to be proofread and significantly corrected in terms of grammar and stylistics. This involved over 1,000 standard pages being exported from the editing system into CSV files and the subsequent correction thereof by our native speakers, so that the pages sounded natural, attractive and easy to read for German speaking customers. To set the right tone of voice for the identified target group, we used a company style guide that determined the desired style of communication for the brand.

The text contained a high percentage of repetitions which were analysed with the right CAT tools. In this case, it was Memsource because it is an online tool that allows multiple linguists to work simultaneously with a single translation memory and glossary.

Activities after linguistic and marketing proofreading:

Implementation of final texts to the website interface.
Visual check of the website and online store (www.fenster-sofort.de) focused on finding texts that were not part of the exported texts put up for proofreading, wrapping of the text, CTA buttons, menu items, etc. This also included a so-called „customer path“ check, which involves going through the whole order process, from inquiry through creating an order to fictive delivery and after sales services. This process resulted in a report with (suggested) changes that needed to be implemented in order for the web to work properly.
Website credibility analysis carried out by German native speakers who browsed the whole German website and assessed how credible it was for them as website visitors. This resulted in valuable input that increased the website’s quality and ensured higher conversion rates in achieving the business goals of the company (number of orders, etc.). For example, our native speakers discovered that the website referred to business conducted in the Czech Republic. This is irrelevant or even counterproductive for the German and Austrian markets because it draws too much attention to the Czech origin of the goods. Based on our input, the client changed the focus to business conducted in Germany and Austria.

Post-launch care

Legal support and fulfilment of legal requirements

After localization of the website and online store, the company needed help with legal matters. German law requires the following documents from internet sellers:

AGB: general terms and conditions
Impressum: company details
Datenschutzerklärung: privacy policy statement
Widerrufsbelehrung: form for withdrawing from the contract

To create these documents it was necessary to link the legal requirements with the specific processes of our client, e.g. delivery options, warranty claims, GDPR, invoicing, etc.

The provision of legal support involved the following:

We sent our client questionnaires regarding their specific processes, delivery options, warranty claims and returns policy. Our native speakers of German were available in case of need.
Based on the responses, we put together the required documents in German. Extra attention was paid to making these documents comply with current German law.
We subsequently back-translated the documents into Czech, so the client knew exactly what these documents contained and what obligations they created.
After confirmation from the client, we published the documents on their German website.

Translation of PPC campaigns and social media posts

In addition to legal support, we translate other texts that are needed for running a website in German. These texts are usually for PCC campaigns and social media posts, i.e. texts intended to increase brand awareness, support sales promotions, disperse information about new products, etc. All texts are translated by the same linguists in order to maintain terminological and stylistic consistency. The finished website www.fenter-sofort.de is comprehensible, attractive and feels authentic.