Packaging, labels, campaigns, store signage, and staff training all go through our retail translation services. Each file is translated by a retail linguist and revised by a second linguist under ISO 17100.
Merchandising, packaging, marketing, and human resources (HR) teams use Day Translations for the files that end up on shelves, in stores, and in front of shoppers.
Most retail translation problems surface late: at the printer, at a border, or in a store aisle after launch. Four problems account for most of those late fixes.
Quebec and federal Canadian rules set what a label has to say in French, and United States (US) rules set when a food label has to repeat everything in a second language. Miss one, and the fix happens on physical stock sitting in a warehouse, not in a file. The rules and the work each creates are set out further down this page.
The cost sits in the gap between the file and the shelf. A label is translated once, printed in the tens of thousands, and shipped. When the French is missing a required line or set smaller than the English, nobody fixes a sentence; somebody stickers, reprints, or holds stock.
A seasonal tagline built on an English pun reads flat in Spanish, or says something the brand never meant. Product names and fashion terms shift between countries too. Word-for-word translation keeps the dictionary meaning and drops the reason the line worked.
Collections, holiday promotions, and store openings run on fixed dates. Translation sits near the end of the print schedule, so one late glossary decision pushes back everything behind it.
Marketing uses one agency, packaging another, HR a freelancer. The same product then ends up with three different names in Spanish: one on the box, one in the ad, and one in the training manual store staff read before the launch.
Tell us which markets and teams are involved, and a project manager will scope the languages, reviewers, and file formats with you.
Each team sends different files and has a different person signing off. Your project manager assigns linguists by document type, so packaging copy and store training don’t land on the same desk.
Ingredient lists, care labels, size and specification details, warranty cards, safety warnings, and user manuals. Linguists convert measurements and units to the target market’s convention and keep wording identical across every stock keeping unit (SKU) in a range.
Print and digital ads, seasonal promotions, social media posts, email campaigns, slogans, and brand guidelines. Copy with wordplay goes to transcreation (covered below) instead of straight translation.
Aisle and window signage, shelf labels, point-of-sale (POS) displays, promotional leaflets, and return and exchange notices posted at the till.
Specification sheets, printed catalogs, lookbooks, and customer reviews. Online product listings, checkout pages, and marketplace content go through our e-commerce translation team, and full storefronts through website localization.
Training manuals, store procedures, health and safety guides, HR policies, and handbooks for staff who work in a language other than the head office’s.
Supplier contracts, purchase terms, quality agreements, and vendor correspondence for new sourcing countries. When a contract needs a signed statement of accuracy, it goes through our certified translation services.
Each rule below sets a language requirement for what goes on a product or travels with it. The obligation sits with the brand or seller, and the translation has to match it word for word on the final artwork.
Transcreation rewrites a campaign line in another language so it keeps the intent, tone, and effect of the original instead of its exact words. It starts from your brief: the audience, the tone, the words that must stay, and the ones open to change.
The linguist writes the line in the target language and adds a short note explaining what changed and why. Your brand team approves it before anything goes to print. Approved lines then go into your glossary, so next season’s campaign starts from wording your team has already signed off.
Product names get the same treatment. Before a range launches, the linguist checks each name in the target language for unwanted meanings, slang, and clashes with words already on competing shelves, and flags anything your brand team should rename rather than translate.
Share a campaign brief or a sample label set, and the quote will list the linguists, reviewers, and transcreation steps for your project.
Each sector has its own document set, and the linguist assigned to it knows which words carry legal or safety weight.
ingredient lists, directions for use, and claims printed on the pack.
care labels, size charts, and fit descriptions that change wording from one country to the next.
user manuals, safety warnings, and warranty cards.
signage, catalogs, and promotions that cover dozens of brands under one roof.
nutrition panels, ingredient statements, and the full mandatory label set under 21 CFR 101.15(c).
quick-start guides, manuals, and warranty terms.
This engagement comes from our client case studies library, with the full write-up linked at the end of the card.
An ecommerce company entering Latin America needed more than 50,000 product descriptions, its checkout flows, and its customer service templates in Spanish, with separate regional variants for four markets.
Regional Spanish teams adapted currency formats, measurements, and cultural references country by country, and translation memory kept terminology identical across the catalog. The results reported for the first year: Latin American sales grew 400%, Mexico became the company’s third-largest market, and support tickets fell 95%.
In June 2019, a multinational food distribution corporation asked us to translate a major infographic explaining its workflow, facts and figures included.
The same six steps apply to a single care label and to a full seasonal campaign in ten languages. Steps 3 and 4 follow the translation and revision workflow in ISO 17100:2015.
Your project manager reviews the files, target markets, and launch date through a secure transfer, then sends a quote listing the language pairs, word counts, and reviewers. Text that repeats from earlier packaging or campaigns is counted separately, so you pay less for wording you’ve already approved.
The team builds a glossary from your past labels, campaigns, and style guide. Your reviewers approve product names and key terms before translation starts, and the glossary is locked in our translation management system.
A native-speaking linguist who works on your document type translates the files, using the locked glossary and your brand voice notes.
A second qualified linguist compares the translation against the source, sentence by sentence. The reviser checks meaning, terminology, units, and tone, and routes questions about unclear source text to your team through the project manager.
Before print, a linguist reads the translated text in the final artwork proof your designers prepare, looking for cut-off lines, missing accents, swapped units, and French text set smaller than the English.
You receive the final files. Edits from your reviewers go back into the glossary and translation memory, so next season’s relaunch starts from approved wording.
Planning a seasonal launch or a new market? Walk through the six steps with a project manager before your artwork is final.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools prepare files, check terminology, and run quality checks.
A professional linguist reviews every word that goes to a client, and no retail file is published from raw machine output.
For high-volume internal material or long product feeds, clients opt in to AI post-editing, where a linguist edits machine output to an agreed quality level.
Labels, campaigns, and contracts stay on full human translation and revision.
Unreleased packaging, campaign drafts, and supplier pricing move through a controlled system from upload to deletion. Our Trust Center lists the full set of controls.
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 information security management, audited annually by an accredited third party, and SOC 2 Type II.
256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256) at rest and Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 in transit.
zero-trust access with multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based permissions on a least-privilege basis.
region-specific data storage. Data from the European Union (EU) stays in the EU.
non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and a data processing agreement (DPA) under EU data-protection rules, on request.
Some retail work happens out loud. Day Interpreting provides interpreters for supplier negotiations, store openings, and staff training sessions, on site, by video, or by phone. Teams also reach an interpreter through the Day Interpreting app. More detail sits on our interpreting services page.
Retail clients stay for the controls behind each file as much as for the translation itself.
One named project manager who knows your launch calendar, reviewers, and glossary.
Locked terminology in the Smartcat translation management system, shared by every linguist on your account.
Volume from 10,000 to more than 10 million words a month on one account, with the same reviewers and glossary.
Enterprise terms, including volume pricing and NET30 billing on enterprise contracts, arranged through our enterprise solutions team.
Public sector access as a General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule contract holder.
Memberships in the American Translators Association (ATA), the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), and the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), plus an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
The fastest quotes start with editable source files: the Word, Excel, or InDesign file behind a label, not a photo of the printed pack.
Add the target markets and the launch or print date, since the date decides how many linguists work in parallel.
If your team already has a glossary, a brand style guide, or approved translations from earlier seasons, send those too. They become the starting point for your locked glossary, so terms your reviewers signed off years ago stay exactly as they are.
One more detail saves a round of edits later: the name of the person on your side who approves each language. Packaging, marketing, and HR rarely share a reviewer, and the project manager routes files to the right one.
Retail translation covers the text on and around a product: packaging, labels, care instructions, campaigns, store signage, POS materials, catalogs, staff training, and supplier contracts. Online listings and storefronts sit with our ecommerce and website localization teams.
Label laws, brand voice, and launch dates leave no room for loose wording. A label is printed in the tens of thousands and shipped, so a missing French line means stickering or reprinting stock instead of editing a file. Professional retail translation gets the wording right before the print run.
Retail translation carries the meaning of the source text into another language. Transcreation rewrites a campaign line so it keeps the intent, tone, and effect of the original instead of its exact words. Labels and manuals need translation, while slogans and wordplay need transcreation.
Brands, retailers, and consumer goods companies that sell in more than one language. Inside those companies, merchandising, packaging, marketing, and HR teams use them for the files that end up on shelves, in stores, and in front of shoppers.
Recurring work runs on one glossary and one translation memory, so a new SKU only needs its new text translated. Volume pricing applies as the word count grows.
Through transcreation from your brief. The linguist rewrites the line for the target market, notes what changed, and your brand team approves before print.
Only as an opt-in AI post-editing workflow for high-volume internal or feed content, with a linguist editing every segment. Labels, campaigns, and contracts get full human translation and revision.
Yes. Both are built at setup, locked in our translation management system, and updated after every project with your reviewers’ edits.
Price depends on word count, language pair, subject matter, file format, and deadline. Repeated text from earlier packaging or campaigns costs less, and enterprise contracts add volume pricing and NET30 billing.
Yes. French label text follows section 51 of Quebec’s Charter of the French language, catalogs follow section 52, and bilingual labels follow section 6(2) of the Canada Consumer Packaging and Labelling Regulations.
Yes. An NDA is available on request before any files change hands, and every linguist on your account works under a confidentiality agreement.
Yes. Training manuals, store procedures, health and safety guides, and HR policies go to linguists who work on workplace documents, with the same glossary as your packaging, so product names match what staff see on the shelf.
Yes, through our ecommerce translation team, which handles product listings, checkout pages, and marketplace content on the same account and glossary as your packaging and campaigns.
Brands, retailers, and consumer goods companies: send the markets, files, and launch date for your next collection, campaign, or store opening. A project manager will set up the glossary, reviewers, and proof check before the first file is translated.
Start with one product range or campaign.
