Virgin Megastore
Leading entertainment lifestyle retailer
Virgin Megastore – Leading entertainment lifestyle retailer
Virgin Megastore is a global brand with a credible industry reputation. It operates a brick and mortar store (serving customers face-to-face in the building) and an online e-commerce platform known for a wide range of entertainment products, such as music, movies, books, electronics, video games, accessories, and lifestyle. In 1979, Richard Branson opened the first Virgin flagship store in London. Virgin Megastores are global, with stores in major cities across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
Companies have ambitious ways to run a business in various places, and expanding into markets in Saudi Arabia is a major motivation. This motivation basically comes from the market size and growth opportunity that can be perceived by the industry. With the global brand, the company has a lot of advantages in the e-commerce business, considering the global market and the high level of internet usage. Additionally, the e-commerce business will be well-established due to the globalization technology that can connect people all over the world. This situation can be seen in how the young generation in Saudi Arabia now uses technology on a daily basis. This is why Virgin Megastore decided to tap into the Saudi market directly.
Virgin Megastore’s expansion in the Saudi market is an act of a company that has admired its value creation in the past 40 years and aims to satisfy customers with its quality of service excellence and the decision to expand the business in the Saudi market required a professional translation service that connected the cultural sensitivity of the Saudi market, where the target audience preferred Arabic language for online shopping. General knowledge about the Saudi market is primarily based on the oil industry and Islamic culture. Thus, before going to the Saudi market, Virgin had to localize their online store into Arabic to cater to the linguistic preferences of their target market. This involved translating a large volume of content, ranging from product descriptions to website interface elements, while also ensuring that the tone, style, and expressions used resonated with the Gulf/KSA region’s cultural nuances, and all of these cannot happen without DashWord.
A High volume of large content in a short timeframe
The strategy directed at the Saudi market faced many challenges and obstacles, including retaining Standard Arabic with Khaliji tone, style, and unique expression used in the Gulf/KSA region when localizing into Arabic. Furthermore, the workload increased due to the need to handle large amounts of material in diverse domains in a short period of time, as well as technical difficulties that added complexity to the process, especially when extracting and processing product copy. These barriers could affect various aspects of business development, such as reduced sales in the targeted region, difficulty reaching and engaging with new audiences, and concerns about the cultural relevance of product descriptions. Since the Saudi audience prefers Arabic and the website is only in English, it was important to apply all the above to address the challenges.
A Multifaceted Translation Strategy
Here comes our role. We at DashWord played a vital role, and the translation process went beyond a simple word-for-word conversion, implementing a multi-pronged process to ensure efficiency, quality and cost-effectiveness. At first, we started with consultations with Virgin Megastore’s marketing team and our technology departments to determine the best file format for extracting and importing information. This step was so important for the translation process to occur regularly and maintain accuracy across platforms. Followed by widely analyzed manual and automatic content to identify various aspects such as vocabulary count, areas of involvement and cultural nuances. This analysis led to the formulation of a formal guide and a database, which developed valuable resources to maintain linguistic consistency and cultural relevance throughout the translation process.
Then DashWord’s engineering phase started to involve editing and classifying files in accordance with cloud-based CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) tools, which allowed the translation team to collaborate closely. Followed by creating style guides and a terminology database to maintain consistency across translations. This careful approach was further enhanced by the selection of a robust CAT that enabled real-time communication, live dictionary changes, and efficient reuse of common words, saving time and cost. Also, DashWord used a rigorous selection process for translators with expertise in topics related to their expertise in the subject-matters of content to ensure that the translated content did not only accurately reflect the original meaning but was also in line with the cultural preferences of the targeted audience.
In parallel with the translation phase, Dashward conducted ongoing and quality assurance reviews, supervised by experienced reviewers. The inclusion of modern technology allowed language to be reused multiple times, saving costs and time by recycling repeated copies and publishing live glossaries to support translation teams, in addition to the embedded chat feature in our platform for easy communication.
Once the translation was completed and validated, the engineering process started again to restore the files back to their original state for customer use. Virgin Megastore was involved in every step of the process, highlighting the true spirit of this meaningful partnership and ensuring that the restored content accurately reflected their brand and message. This could involve customizing product descriptions for local preferences, implementing SEO best practices for the target language, and considering currency and measurement changes.
Increased sales, improved e-commerce traffic and a cost-effective solution
Working collaboratively with Virgin Megastore to expand in the Saudi market delivered significant positive results that have extended beyond improved metrics to include broader strategic benefits, resulting in improved user experience and greater establishment in the e-commerce field.
Virgin Megastore’s entry into the Saudi market reinforced its brand visibility and acceptance among consumers, establishing a strong footprint in a profitable and thriving market. By catering to the preferences of Saudi consumers through localized products, content and culturally relevant offerings, Virgin Megastore has gained access to a rapidly expanding customer base that has taken advantage of new revenue and growth opportunities. This not only helped Virgin Megastore to increase sales but also strengthened its position as a trusted and reputable retailer in the e-commerce landscape and facilitated greater engagement with the target audience, increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction. Also, it improved the user experience for Saudi customers who visited the Virgin Megastore online platform and navigated in the Arabic language, making them feel at home on the website and spending a huge amount of time on the platform, leading to a higher engagement and conversion rate.
The expansion into Saudi Arabia has opened the door for Virgin Megastores to form strategic partnerships and collaborations with local entrepreneurs, influencers and organizations.