BLEND Creates Automated, Scalable Localization Workflows for iHerb

About iHerb

iHerb.com is a multichannel B2C and B2B retailer of vitamins, nutritional supplements, and natural products. A rapidly expanding business, iHerb carries one of the largest selections of high-quality nutritional products in the world.
Since 1996, iHerb has striven to enhance the online shopping experience, and is committed to enriching the lives of its customers by offering the finest, high-quality, natural products at a superior value.

GOAL

Higher annual sales through multimarket growth

With an expansive, US-based eCommerce operation, iHerb realized that the key to its aggressive growth plans depended on the ability to provide localized shopping experiences to key international markets. The company contacted BLEND to see if its website, including main product pages, marketing materials, and thousands of product descriptions, could be translated to deliver locally authentic information to language audiences throughout Europe and Asia.

SOLUTION & SUCCESS

Expanded localization team and supported languages

BLEND created a fully automated workflow for iHerb, ensuring scalability and the ability to post thousands of translation projects at once with the click of a button. Integrating with iHerb’s API, the top 10,000 Web product descriptions were translated into nine language pairs. We utilized translation memory to reduce costs and turnaround times and maintain uniform terminology. Later, two language pairs were switched to hybrid translation to increase savings even more (47%). Since the initial project engagement, iHerb has greatly increased the size of its localization team, is constantly increasing the number of supported languages (BLEND has delivered 15 to date), and has achieved global market penetration. Today, iHerb is truly a multimarket success, serving a customer base of 10 million+ in 185 countries, 74 currencies, and 34 payment options.

Solution Breakdown:

Services deployed for iHerb

	API Integrated BLEND directly into the customer’s Content Management System (CMS) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM), allowing for projects in multiple languages to be sent with the click of a button.
	Translation Memory A database that stores “segments”—sentences, paragraphs or sentence-like units that have previously been translated—to aid human translators and maintain uniform translation style.
	MyTeam A dedicated team of highly-rated, individually-matched translators trained in specific content.
	Account Manager The account manager serves as the lead point of contact for all customer account management matters and ensures that projects are completed according to the requirements.
	Hybrid Translation An all-inclusive, multi-step process based on Neural Machine Translation (NMT) with human post-editing. BLEND integrates the leading NMT engines available on the market.