When translated content doesn’t quite land

AI has made it easier for retail teams to translate large volumes of content quickly. But speed alone does not guarantee that content will feel quite right to customers in each market.

For example, product copy may sound a little flat. Campaign language may lose its intent. Category terms may not carry the same meaning. And when local teams start heavily rewriting content before it goes live, localisation becomes slower and less consistent than it should be.

The real challenge is knowing how to apply AI-led localisation in a structured way, with the right linguistic and cultural expertise in the right places.

That way, content can scale without losing the tone, trust and commercial impact that matter in retail.

In this on-demand webinar, James Brown, Head of Commercial at Comtec, shares a practical look at how retail teams can make AI-led localisation work more effectively by matching the right level of localisation effort to the content, risk and customer impact.

In this 30-minute session, we explored why retail localisation has become more complex, and how brands can apply AI-led workflows without losing the tone, meaning and market fit that make content work.

You’ll see:

• Why localisation is a specific challenge for retail teams scaling across markets
• The difference between translation and localisation, and why that gap matters commercially
• Why accuracy alone is not enough when content needs to influence trust, confidence and purchase decisions
• Where human linguistic expertise adds the most value in an AI-led workflow
• How glossaries, tone guidance and terminology control help improve AI output at scale
• Why one localisation process for everything is rarely the most efficient approach
• How to categorise retail content by visibility, risk and business impact
• How an optimised retail localisation workflow can balance speed, cost and brand protection

It’s a practical session for retail, eCommerce, brand, marketing and digital teams looking to apply AI-led localisation in a more controlled, structured and commercially sensible way.

🎥 Watch the full recording

• Localisation is not just about making content understandable. It’s about making sure it feels natural and works for customers in each market.
• Retail content carries different levels of risk. Product descriptions, category pages and campaigns should not always follow the same process.
• AI-led machine translation can support speed and scale, especially for structured or high-volume content.
• AI works best when it is guided by approved terminology, tone guidance and linguistic expertise.
• Human expertise adds crucial judgement. Linguists help protect brand voice, cultural fit and the language that influences purchase confidence.
• High-visibility or brand-sensitive content needs a higher level of human input.
• A tiered localisation approach helps teams invest effort where it matters most.
• The strongest localisation setups combine technology, governance and human expertise in a practical, repeatable way.

If you’re thinking about:

• Using AI-led machine translation for high-volume retail content
• Reducing localisation costs without putting brand quality at risk
• Improving product, category or campaign content across markets
• Reducing the amount of rewriting done by local teams
• Creating clearer rules for which content needs human review
• Protecting terminology, tone and brand consistency as content volumes grow
• Building a more predictable localisation workflow for retail or eCommerce content

We can help you take a practical look at what you already have and where small changes could make a meaningful difference.

There are two simple ways to approach this:

Option 1: Review a sample of your content
We can look at a small sample of your product, campaign or category content and show how different localisation approaches would perform in practice.

Option 2: Review your current workflow
We can take a light-touch look at your current setup, including content types, terminology, review processes and where AI-led localisation could be used safely.

No heavy process. No one-size-fits-all recommendation.

Just clear, practical guidance on how to apply the right level of localisation to the right content, so you can scale multilingual content while protecting brand voice, customer trust and commercial impact.

Contact us today to explore how a more structured localisation approach could support your retail growth.