Machine-translated listings on Amazon.fr, .it, .es, .pl or Kaufland usually rank badly for one simple reason: shoppers in each country search with their own words, not with translations of yours. On top of that, sizes, units and legal terms differ per country, and accented letters eat into byte limits. Translate first, then localise keywords, sizes and mandatory wording, then check the result against the marketplace’s limits.
Why a correct translation can still fail
A translation tool answers “what does this German word mean in French?”. A marketplace search answers “which listings match what this shopper typed?”. The two are not the same: the translation can be grammatically perfect and still contain none of the words French shoppers actually use. Amazon says so itself in its guide to listing translation: machine translation may not use the keywords that rank in local search, so research local search terms for each new store.
Three other things go wrong regularly:
- Sizes and units are translated word for word instead of converted to the local convention.
- Legal terms — fibre names, warnings — have fixed wording in each language, and a tool picks a synonym.
- A word slides in meaning. In our own test, a German “Wasserschutz IPX6” (protected against water jets) became the French “étanchéité IPX6” — étanche means waterproof, which IPX6 is not.
People search other words, not translations
Start from the product, not from your German or English title. Typical cases where the literal translation misses the term shoppers type:
| Source term | Literal translation → what shoppers type |
|---|---|
| Handyhülle (phone case) | FR étui pour téléphone → coque ; IT custodia → cover |
| Trinkflasche (water bottle) | FR bouteille à boire → gourde ; IT → borraccia ; PL → bidon |
| Kapuzenpullover (hoodie) | FR pull à capuche → sweat à capuche ; ES jersey con capucha → sudadera con capucha ; PL sweter z kapturem → bluza z kapturem |
How to find the right words for each store:
- Type the product type into the search bar of Amazon.fr, .it, .es or .pl and note the autocomplete suggestions.
- Read the titles of the best-selling listings of the same product type in that store.
- If your brand is registered, use Amazon Brand Analytics for the store to see which search terms convert.
- Write the backend search terms per store, in that language — never copy the German ones (see backend search terms).
Units, sizes and formats
- Decimal separator: French, Italian, Spanish and Polish use a comma like German (2,5 kg); English uses a point (2.5 kg).
- Children’s clothing: German sizes by height (98, 104, 110 …) are usually shown by age in France and Spain (“3 ans”, “4 años”). Give both if the size chart allows.
- Bed linen and textiles: standard sizes differ per country. A German 135 × 200 cm duvet cover is not a standard French size, so say the dimensions and leave out “standard size”.
- Electrical goods: name the plug type (for example type F, “Schuko”) rather than “EU plug” — in Italy, type L sockets are common as well.
- Keep every measurement from your data. Convert only the format, never the number.
Legal terms have fixed wording in each language
Textile fibre names come from Annex I of Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011, which exists in every EU language, and the label must be in the official language of the country you sell to (Article 16(3)). A tool often picks a synonym or a trade name instead:
| German | French · Italian · Spanish · Polish |
|---|---|
| Baumwolle | coton · cotone · algodón · bawełna |
| Elasthan | élasthanne · elastan · elastano · elastan (not “spandex”, not “Lycra”) |
| Viskose | viscose · viscosa · viscosa · wiskoza |
| Polyester | polyester · poliestere · poliéster · poliester |
Warnings and safety information must be in a language consumers in the country can easily understand, as that country determines (GPSR Article 19(d)). France (Loi Toubon, Article 2), Italy (Consumer Code, Article 9) and Poland (Polish Language Act, Article 7a) require their own language for product information and warnings.
Toy warnings are a good example of wording that a tool gets wrong. Under the Toy Safety Directive (Article 11(2)), warnings must be preceded by a fixed word, which each language version spells out: “Achtung” in German, “Attention” in French, “Avvertenza” or “Avvertenze” in Italian (the Italian law, d.lgs. 54/2011, Article 10(5), also allows “Attenzione”), “Advertencia” or “Advertencias” in Spanish and “Ostrzeżenie” or “Ostrzeżenia” in Polish. A tool will happily write “Warnung”, “Atención” or “Uwaga” instead. Details in toy warnings online and textile fibre names.
Accents cost bytes, translations cost characters
Amazon counts backend search terms in bytes, not characters. In UTF‑8, every accented letter takes two bytes: é, è, à, ç in French, ñ and á in Spanish, ò and ù in Italian, and ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź, ż in Polish. The euro sign takes three.
| Text | Characters → bytes |
|---|---|
| chaussures randonnée imperméables | 33 → 35 |
| buty trekkingowe wodoodporne męskie | 35 → 36 |
| żółć | 4 → 8 |
A Polish or French search terms field that looks short enough can therefore be over the limit. French and Spanish versions also tend to run longer than the German or English source, so titles and bullets that fit at home can exceed the limit after translation. Count with the search terms byte counter and the title checker.
Amazon’s Build International Listings
Build International Listings (BIL) in Seller Central creates and updates offers in other Amazon stores from one source store and can keep prices in sync using your pricing rules. Where a product does not exist in the target store yet, it tries to create the detail page with a machine translation. According to Amazon, BIL can translate titles and bullet points; Amazon itself recommends researching local search terms and points to professional translation for the full listing.
Use BIL to get offers live quickly, then go through each new store: title and bullets with local keywords, backend search terms written for that store, description, size and unit formats, and the safety and warning texts in the local language.
A workflow that works: translate, localise, check
- 1. Translate from the cleanest source: your product data (materials, sizes, warnings), not an old listing full of marketing phrases.
- 2. Localise keywords: replace the translated product type with the term shoppers use, then write title and search terms around it.
- 3. Localise formats: decimal comma or point, sizes, plug types.
- 4. Replace legal terms with the official wording: fibre names, warning words, the GPSR safety information.
- 5. Check limits and wording per marketplace: title length, bullets, search term bytes, and claims that are banned in every language, such as “éco-responsable” or “sostenibile”.
For step 5, paste the translated listing into the free listing check: it counts limits the way each marketplace does and finds banned environmental claims, “CE-geprüft” and fibre names that are not allowed, such as “bamboo”, in all six languages. If you would rather skip steps 1–5, Nordova writes each language version from your product data directly instead of translating one listing — see how it compares to ChatGPT.