EBay.com Inc., the most-visited U.S. e-commerce Web site, will begin offering a translation service this week for Japanese sellers wanting to list products on its English-language service to encourage cross-border trade, the company said Tuesday.
Sellers will be able to type a product description in Japanese and have it translated within a day into English, said Usher Lieberman, a spokesman for eBay. The service will give Japanese vendors better access to buyers on the company's U.K., U.S. and Australian sites, he said.
"EBay is unique in that they have a global reach with all their Web sites," said Ryan Miller, president of Shanghai-based MerchantRun Inc., which provides software to eBay. "It makes sense that they would want to encourage cross-border trade, and one of the main barriers to cross-border trade is language."
EBay, which offers a similar translation program for Chinese merchants, is trying to encourage international buying and selling.
Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe has said cross-border trade is "exploding" in China and the company is trying to do more to help vendors after traffic dropped at the site over the last year. EBay has fallen short in giving Japanese sellers tools they need to succeed, Lieberman said.
"It's a largely untapped market for us," he said.
International sales at eBay more than doubled last year to $4.6 billion and now account for 54 percent of total revenue.