For this month’s edition of In Layman’s Terms, I was asked to look into a French company that’s been taking international e-commerce to new levels since 2007. WebInterpret was founded 7 years ago in the south of France by Patrick Smarzynski and Benjamin Cohen, two entrepreneurs who met while studying IT management and entrepreneurship at the EM Lyon School for business. Together, they oversaw the conception of a simultaneous multilingual translation platform that met with instant success among professionals who used to the system to facilitate communication with foreign customers and colleagues. Today, WebInterpret has expanded its activity and services throughout Europe and the USA.
Despite the close working relationship of these two very busy men, managing to find a date where both of them could squeeze in an interview was no mean feat. In the end it was decided that both would meet with me on the 1st of May, which happens to be Labor Day in France – a day most people spend at home with their feet up! But, as it became apparent during the interview, Benjamin Cohen and Patrick Smarzynski — and the 100 employees worldwide that strive to maintain WebInterpret’s steady success – really enjoy their job!
In this interview, they’re going to tell us, in layman’s terms, about their entirely new, fully-automated, SaaS application that has been put into operation to enable professional online traders to reach more buyers in foreign markets.
WebInterpret. In a nutshell?
Smarzynski: In a nutshell, WebInterpret is all about simplification. We are making e-commerce accessible to everyone.
Cohen: Basically, if you know you’ve got a product that will sell well in another country but don’t have the time or language skills to take care of all the ins-and-outs that go into branching out abroad, we’ll do the work for you.
Okay, but what about simultaneous translation? That’s a great idea. Do you still do that?
Smarzynski: Yes, that was a great idea back in 2007. That’s how WebInterpret first met with success. But after a couple of years, we felt the need to evolve, to provide more for our customers.
Cohen: So we developed a new application that is enabling professional online traders to increase their visibility in the foreign marketplace.
How exactly?
Cohen: Let’s say you’re in retail and you sell t-shirts via Amazon.com in the US. You’d like to be able to sell your t-shirts in France, Germany and Spain, for example, but only speak rudimentary Spanish. Hiring a translator is a hefty investment. And then there are all the formalities, dealing in different currencies, shipping costs, conditions, return policies… So many things to take into consideration. For many sellers, the idea is daunting.
So I’m guessing this is where WebInterpret comes into play.
Smarzynski: That’s right. We’re your no-hassle, turnkey solution. Think of us as your back office. You continue with business as usual and we’ll take your international business to a new level.
Do you only work with Amazon?
Smarzynski: No, we’re also preferred partners of eBay, Magento and other such e-commerce platforms.
Cohen: Rakuten will soon figure in our offer as well.
You recently raised €5 million in capital. Sounds like your decision to evolve was convincing.
Smarzynski: You could say that, yes. And we want to continue evolving. WebInterpret will be investing those funds in Research and Development in order to provide superior, state-of-the-art solutions for our customers and partners.
Well, thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy schedules to chat with me today. I know it’s supposed to be a day off.
Cohen: You’re working, my local café was open this morning.
Smarzynski: My baker is also thankfully open for business today!
Any time for time off with all this activity?
Smarzynski: We’ve surrounded ourselves with a great team of e-commerce rock stars! Being at work is great. It’s fun! We work alongside passionate, ambitious experts whom we value highly. We’ve gradually accepted to delegate to allow ourselves time off.
Cohen: Lots of people say it. Having a business is comparable to having a child. You nurture it, guide it in the right direction. We love what we do and the results we create. Helping businesses, small and large, increase their turnover by 20% in just one month using WebInterpret technology is exhilarating!