Managing the Taxonomy of Multilingual Product Content

Currently, we manage multilingual product content in more than 60 locales. A locale is a language and country combination. Each attribute in Icecat’s taxonomy is multilingual. Examples of attributes are category and spec names, and spec values. Furthermore, the taxonomy is kept compatible with those of global platforms like GS1, Amazon, Google, or Facebook. Translations are handled by our own translators.

Taxonomy Updates

Our dedicated professional taxonomy team keeps the definitions of all attributes up-to-date. For this reason, the team regularly checks global standards and the most commonly used terms in ecommerce. Further, our editorial team, with more than 100 professionals, produces around 150K Product Data-Sheets (PDSs) per month in compliance with the taxonomy. Also, editors suggest taxonomy updates via our Product Information Manager (Icecat PIM). Furthermore, our editors take care of mapping Icecat’s taxonomy to custom brand or retailer taxonomies. For example, when a new brand joins Open Icecat the brand’s taxonomy needs to be harmonized with Icecat’s. Last but not least, the Quality Assurance team checks new PDSs, to detect points that need improvement.

Managing Translations

The base language for our taxonomy is UK English. We do each translation of a UK English string into a locale twice as two translators are cross-checking each other’s work. Further, local managers also double-check translations. Finally, for visual validation of content by Icecat and brand editors, the Icecat PIM has a multilingual interface. If there’s a mistake, it is visible for our many users immediately.

Mitsuyo Watanabe

Region Manager for East Asia/Japan, as well as Translations project manager at Icecat.