Coupang

UX Translation & Writing Case Study (July 2022)

Overview —

Coupang is the largest South Korean eCommerce platform. After launching superfast delivery of fresh food and daily necessities in Taipei April 2022, they sure are looking forward to launching their original Coupang eCommerce service in Taiwan in the nearest future. Still, the main problem is how to localise the product into a new language.

Goals —

Translate the application outline into authentic Taiwanese (Traditional Chinese) and English for local and Foreign users to improve their experiences while using Coupang Taiwan. This case study aims to match Taiwanese expectancy for South Korea’s most successful eCommerce platform.

Challenges —

Research and understand the “Cultural wording differences” between Taiwan and other Chinese-speaking countries. To help Taiwanese find products faster and easier on the category page.

For example, the most representable word to show the difference is “3C產品”, meaning “Gadgets” and “3C” stands for “Computer”, “Communication”, and “Consumer Electronics”. In Macau and Hong Kong, we mainly apply “家居電器” in Chinese to categorise "Gadgets & Electronics". While Taiwan only uses “3C產品” to classify “Gadgets”.

Therefore, I have applied “3C/家電” for “Gadgets & Electronics” in my Taiwanese translation instead of “家居電器” for the app.

Translation of the Categories Page —

Taiwanese Zhuyin Fuhao —

In Taiwan, there is an input source called "Zhuyin", the representative input system that the Taiwanese use in typing Hanja (Chinese characters) on a daily bases.

Taiwanese Zhuyin sounds the same as Mainland Chinese Pinyin. Still, it looks totally different, which is used to align Chinese characters in "alphabetical order".

What if we put the translated Taiwanese version of the category page in Zhuyin order? How would it look, and would it be readable?

I have made a Coupang Korean App-based order translation and a Zhuyin alphabetical order translation (but placed the Coupang and Rocket Categories on top) below.

Thoughts on Zhuyin Alphabetical Order? —

Personally, placing the categories in Zhuyin alphabetical orders is also readable as in Korean App-based order. It is also possible to focus on aligning those categories in Google Taiwan's SEO to understand which are the most wanted items in Taiwan. Therefore, I would suggest empathising with an interview and user test in the future.

Member Page Translations —

Cancel Button Taiwanese Translation —

Last but Not Least, Delivery Status Translations —

Delivery statuses in Taiwanese and English can be unclear due to the similar meaning of each word. The most representative example in English would be “shipped”, “arrived”, and “delivered”. These 3 words define “received” to the user when they are unfamiliar with shipments.

Although they sounded the same to most users, these words are 3 different statuses in shipping to the company.

Therefore, we must add further information to the statuses to solve this unclear situational issue.

  • “Shipped” - would be the first on the list because Coupang is not delivering products via other logistics companies;

  • “Left facility” means the package(s) have left the warehouse and are ready to go in transit;

  • “Arrived at local facility” generally implies the package(s) has arrived at the neighbourhood facility and is ready to go out for delivery;

  • “Out for delivery” - on the way to the customer’s address;

  • “Delivered” means the package(s) has handed to the customer’s safely and we gain a happy customer!