Client Profile
Reuter and its online brand Reuter.de, is one of the largest online retailers of bathroom and home décor in Europe. Not a small feat for a family-led business with more than 30 years of plumbing experience.
Our relationship started when Bernd Reuter decided to have a chat with us about entering the Polish market by the means of localizing their e-commerce website. We talked about our shared Polish roots and found common ground when discussing our principles. As it turned out, Reuter takes great pride in offering the best products for any bathroom and we found it reflects our determination to always provide our clients with the best localization service. The rest, as they say, is history.
| Project specifications | Solution |
| We’ve found our first challenge right at the beginning; as Reuter.de sells more than 300 different brands of highly specialised items, it was difficult for them to even specify the requirements for the project. The ballpark quote provided was about 6 million words to be translated. | Our localization engineers have really proven their worth here by defining the scope for the project. They have removed non-translatables and prepared the source materials in such a way that our linguists could focus exclusively on translating and immersing themselves in the world of plumbing and other installations. |
| Deadlines and Budget | Solution |
| Cost control is a very German thing, and Reuter preferred to start trading in Poland as soon as possible – ideally in six months since project inception. They knew perfectly well that for 6 million words it was more of a wish than a plan, but we understood the assignment – quality first, but quickly. | We have performed a thorough analysis of the source texts and managed to vastly reduce the number of words requiring translation. This meant we didn’t have to race to meet the deadlines and Reuter saved 90 percent of the initial budget for the project. It’s worth to mention that we’ve also kept updating the already-translated texts with current terminology free of any charge – see the next point for details. |
| Terminology | Solution |
| As we’ve mentioned, Reuter.de specialises in bathroom fittings and décor. Coupled with the number of stocked brands and the sheer variety of highly specialised products, there was a plethora of highly technical terms used throughout the website. The terms for items could also vary from brand to brand and it was an added challenge to present them in a unified format when translated. | We have decided what Reuter really needs is a couple of good, specialist dictionaries of plumbing installations and other fields to be translated. Our language leads took Reuter to task with regards to bathroom decor brands and installations so the created dictionary could be filled with terms such as drain covers, drain kits and drain fittings. All this might be Greek to a regular person, but would be immediately understood by your plumber, who would then know what to buy and how to use it. These dictionaries were then used by us to translate – as always – in accordance with ISO 17100! This means all materials were processed by two specialists: a translator and a reviser – both highly-competent, professional translators who made sure all terms were translated along the same lines and with their dictionary equivalents. |
Conclusion
Some things are meant to be, and this relationship proved to be as long lasting as the best of our client’s bathroom fittings. We have been impressed with Reuter’s good communications practices and enjoyed weekly meetings to discuss progress and related issues.
We think we’ve made a lasting impression, too, as we’ve managed to satisfy Reuter’s need for speed while preserving the quality of the localization and even made the entire project cost a lot less.
Quick Facts
Language pairs translated: German-Polish
Specialization fields: plumbing and bathroom fittings, bathroom décor, cleaning products, home décor
Project types: website localization, software localization
Number of translated words: 720 thousand and counting!
Notes: Additional materials created for the client included several dictionaries totalling at 15 thousand words and counting.
