What's Actually Going On
For many factories, the first step going global is hiring a translation firm to turn their Chinese product catalog into English, and then assuming the prep work is done. That move seems reasonable, but it only solves the "can it be read" problem — it does nothing for "do they want to look at it" or "can they find the point."
A buyer handed a word-for-word translated document can understand it literally, but has no way of grasping which channel this product should sell into, what the core selling point is, or how it compares to similar products. Language is only the surface barrier — the real barrier is that the underlying logic of the materials was written for a domestic Chinese customer's habits from the start, not for a buyer's decision-making logic.
A Real Example
An outdoor furniture factory sent a machine-translated version of its Chinese product manual straight to a buyer, who replied, "I can't quite tell what setting this product is meant for." After reworking it from the buyer's point of view — leading with use case, target audience, and core differentiation — the same buyer finally understood it and moved the conversation forward.
So What Should You Actually Do
- First clarify who these materials are for and what they care about most, then decide how to organize the content — translation should always be the last step, not the first.
- Replace "here's what we have" with "here's what you get," and reorganize the information order from the buyer's point of view.
- Have someone who's actually worked with overseas buyers review the logic, not just a translation firm polishing the language.