Bringing Translation In-House and Eliminating Agency Lead Times for ShelterLogic
July 25, 2025
USE CASE OVERVIEW
ShelterLogic Needed Faster, Lower-Cost Translation Without Sacrificing Linguistic Quality
ShelterLogic is an outdoor lifestyle brand managing a product catalog that requires content in multiple languages, including French-Canadian and Spanish, to serve North American retail markets. Reaching every shopper means meeting them in the language they speak, with copy that reads naturally and reflects the brand’s voice.
For years, that meant relying on an outside translation agency for every foreign-language update. Translated content flowed through a manual, agency-dependent process that gave ShelterLogic limited internal oversight, extended lead times, and a real risk of delaying e-commerce readiness or product launches whenever a translation request stacked up. The dependency also drove up cost and made it difficult for internal teams to move at the speed the business needed.
To take direct control of the translation process, accelerate time-to-market, and ensure every translation sounded conversational and culturally appropriate, ShelterLogic partnered with Sitation to build an AI-powered translation workflow inside Salsify.
Challenges
- Dependency on an outside translation agency created long lead times that could delay product launches and e-commerce readiness
- Limited internal oversight and control over the translation process
- High costs associated with external agency translations
- Manual update processes with no scalable automation
- Internal teams couldn’t initiate or manage translations on demand
- Risk of linguistic inaccuracy, lost cultural nuance, or inconsistent brand voice when working through third-party vendors
Goals
- Reduce translation lead times and accelerate time-to-market for French-Canadian and Spanish content
- Give internal teams direct control and self-reliance over the translation process
- Reduce translation costs by eliminating the external agency dependency
- Ensure translated content maintained linguistic accuracy, fluency, and cultural appropriateness to sound conversational, as if written by a native speaker
- Build a scalable, in-house translation workflow integrated into existing Salsify processes
Approach
Working together, Sitation and ShelterLogic designed and implemented an AI-powered translation workflow built directly into Salsify, with Plezio Draft, Sitation’s AI-powered content tool, at the center. The engagement combined careful prompt engineering, broad content coverage, native Salsify workflow design, and hands-on training to make the entire process repeatable in-house.
- Prompt engineering. Sitation developed customized Draft prompts to translate English copy into French-Canadian and Spanish, tuned for linguistic accuracy, fluency, and cultural appropriateness, targeting a conversational tone as if written by a native speaker.
- Comprehensive content scope. The translation workflow covered the full content surface area, including:
- Core content – product display names, keywords, short and long descriptions, and up to 10 feature bullets
- A+ content – DIY instructions, warranty copy, “what fits” descriptions, and up to 12 A+ bullets and headers
- Graphics content – banners, infographic text bullets, feature graphics text, and alt-text descriptions
- Salsify workflow build. Following the Draft implementation, Sitation built workflows in Salsify to manage the translation and approval process end-to-end, from content generation through review and publication readiness.
- Training and handoff. ShelterLogic teams were trained to run and approve translated content directly, enabling full in-house self-reliance going forward.
RESULTS
ShelterLogic Replaced Agency Dependency with On-Demand, In-House Translation Across Every Content Type
- Reduced translation lead times through in-house AI-assisted translations available on demand, replacing agency-dependent timelines
- Reduced translation costs by eliminating external agency fees for routine translation needs
- Achieved full internal team self-sufficiency with ShelterLogic teams now manage the translation process independently
- Maintained content quality with translations validated for linguistic accuracy, fluency, and cultural appropriateness in both French-Canadian and Spanish
- Extended translation coverage across the full content surface area, including core content, A+ content, and graphics copy
BEYOND BASICS
Translation Quality Beyond Word-for-Word
Many AI tools can translate text. The differentiator in this engagement was the iterative partnership between Sitation and ShelterLogic to ensure translations use the correct terminology and account for linguistic accuracy, fluency, and cultural appropriateness, not just word-for-word conversion. The goal was for translated content to sound conversational, as if written by a native speaker. The Salsify workflow gave ShelterLogic’s team direct control and visibility over the translation process for the first time, transitioning from an agency-dependent model to full in-house self-reliance and empowering the team to move at the speed of their business.
Conclusion
ShelterLogic’s partnership with Sitation transformed a slow, costly, agency-dependent translation process into a fast, scalable, in-house workflow built on AI and Salsify. By combining customized Draft prompts, end-to-end workflow design, and direct training for the ShelterLogic team, the program now delivers French-Canadian and Spanish content on demand at a lower cost, with shorter lead times, and with translations engineered to read as if written by a native speaker.
Testimonials
Are Translation Lead Times Slowing Your Product Launches?
Reaching shoppers in their language shouldn’t depend on an external agency’s queue. Discover how Sitation’s Plezio Draft AI-powered content tool, combined with Salsify workflow expertise, can help you bring translation in-house, cut lead times, and deliver content that sounds conversational in every language you sell in.
