Website localization for entering the Ukrainian market

Situation

An international company was preparing to enter the Ukrainian market. The website needed localization — product pages, interface strings, forms, notifications — plus marketing materials for the launch. Two languages were required: Ukrainian as the primary, and one more for part of the audience.

Task

Make the site read as if it had been written in Ukrainian from day one — no calqued constructions, no “translated” tone. And hit the launch date fixed in the marketing plan.

How we did it

1. Glossary and brand voice. Before starting we agreed the product terminology and tone of address: formal or informal, how the brand speaks to customers, which brand words stay untranslated.
2. Localization, not translation. Interface strings were adapted to button and field lengths; dates and currencies to Ukrainian conventions; examples to the local context.
3. Two languages in one cycle. Both language versions were produced in parallel from a single source — faster and cheaper than two separate projects, with no drift between versions.
4. Working in the developers’ format. Texts traveled as localization files, so the client’s team imported the translation without manual copy-paste.
5. Proofreading on the live site. After import we reviewed the real pages: button lengths, line breaks, truncated strings — everything fixed before release.

Result

The site launched on schedule in both languages. The cooperation moved into maintenance mode: new pages and updates are translated under the same glossary.

Worth knowing

• Localization’s most visible problems live at the seams, not in the copy: truncated buttons, untranslated error messages, English date formats. A final pass on the live site is essential.
• A glossary plus translation memory makes every site update cheaper than the last — standard practice in our website localization.
• Several languages as one project always beats ordering the same languages separately.
• For the opposite direction — a Ukrainian brand going European — see the export website translation case.