How Akeneo & Salesforce connectors helped a global brand localize e-commerce content to reach audiences worldwide

3 million words translated in a year
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One of the world’s leading manufacturers of watches and chronographs: a global brand praised for its exceptional quality and craftsmanship. Part of an international group, the Swiss-based company works with world-renowned ambassadors from the sports and fashion industries.

Brand: Swiss manufacturer
Industry:
Watchmaking
Challenge:
Website revamp
Technology:
Akeneo & SFCC

The challenge

The brand’s primary objective was to launch a new website bringing together product information and editorial content on one platform. They wanted to create an original retail experience with a range of new products for e-shoppers to enjoy worldwide. The first step was to localize the brand’s newly created English master website by translating the new content into Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and Russian. 

A new digital framework was established to realize the project—using Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) as the CMS and Akeneo as the PIM. Following the revamp, other brands within the group were also expected to switch to the new SFCC and Akeneo template. With many markets involved in the localization stream, cumbersome market approvals were considered a potential hindrance to the process. Finding a solution that seamlessly integrated the SFCC and Akeneo platforms with local markets was key.

What happened

The brand migrated their content from Drupal to Akeneo and SFCC to store and manage product information and editorial content respectively. This is where Wezen came in, installing Akeneo and SFCC connectors to support translation workflows on both platforms.

The only solution on the market compatible with reference entities from the Akeneo PIM version 3.0, the Akeneo connector made it possible to send the entire product catalog—with all its localizable fields—to Wezen for translation and then validation by local markets.

Having selected one of Wezen’s partners as the translation agency for the entire project, the brand’s content managers could create tasks for translation via Wezen by using the appropriate connector—which worked for content on both the Akeneo and SFCC platforms. The respective markets received notifications from Wezen if and when they were required to validate or make corrections to a translation. The translated content was then made available directly on the Akeneo or SFCC platform, via the two connectors.

The results

When the new site was almost ready to be published online, the brand faced an unprecedented issue: their entire PIM database was compromised. All of the translated data—acquired over several months—was lost. Luckily, the Wezen connector was able to re-sync all of the missing translated content without delay. By the end of the day, the PIM was back up and ready for the launch.

Since the successful launch of the brand’s e-commerce website across all markets, the same approach has been used post-go-live for new edits. Any new content or market launches are a piece of cake thanks to Wezen’s seamless processes. Reassuringly, all of the brand’s content is now available in one place, from where it can be sent for translation in a flash and integrated into the website with ease—all directly through Wezen.

To support the localization process, the connectors are regularly maintained to ensure ongoing compatibility with all new PIM and CMS upgrades.

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