In the wake of COVID-19, online shopping became increasingly popular. The reasons are clear: it saves you from the trouble of leaving your home and allows you to buy anything with just a few clicks. Fast, simple, and safe!
The e-commerce model's increased popularity has opened the doors of new opportunities for businesses to discover new markets worldwide. However, it has also highlighted the importance of accessible and understandable web content for different regions.
It is true that the presence on the internet, especially in ecommerce, is closely connected to the building of multilingual communications. While English is a global language, about 75% of consumers prefer products that provide information in their native languages.
It may seem odd. People who purchase online are supposed to speak English, navigate through the internet, and have no problem making virtual payments. And yet, they feel bound to their language.
So what's driving them?
These are the emotions that are incredibly intense when something is close to your heart, like your mother tongue. A study revealed that 52 percent of online consumers tend to shop on websites that use their language. Another study showed that 76% of consumers prefer to purchase from a website translated into their language, and 56% will purchase an unknown brand if the website is in their language.
This creates an enormous opportunity for sellers to boost their international sales. This, however, requires localized ecommerce site with localized ecommerce content.
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Let's start with basics first, i.e., the difference between translation and localization. Translation involves the rendering of one language to another.
Localization is more about tailoring the content per cultural constraints. Localized material can invoke the same emotions as the ones evoked in the source language. It can create a complete understanding of your brand's message for your prospective customers.
Since this process is much more complicated than simply translating, you should consider a few key factors before deciding to localize your ecommerce site. For instance, you need to specify who your prospective online consumers are. It is much easier to start ecommerce localization only if you are confident that a specific demographic group fits your criteria. You can find this out, for example, through Google Analytics, where you can see the location of your site visitors. The findings can often be ambiguous, but this is the first hint.
You must also be mindful that not every market or region will be ideal for you in terms of costs. High shipping costs can also deter buyers who may withdraw from the transaction at the end of the order. Consider all these considerations into account so you could target the right market. You must also understand that most consumers tend to purchase certain products online that are not available in their country. Sometimes, they also prefer to buy products whose quality is much better when they are purchased online.
If you are thinking about localizing your ecommerce website, then you need to prepare appropriately. It is complicated to break into foreign markets. You will need time to ensure that ecommerce localization becomes a successful strategy for your business.
It might be costly to sell the products by shipping, and it is not easy to draw global traffic. You need to know your target market, adjust your product to global expectations, and build trust between your consumers and your business. Once your localized online store succeeds, your casual visitors will turn into buyers.
Here are a few reasons to consider localization for your e-commerce site:
The main goal of ecommerce is to provide global and local consumers with a friendly shopping experience that separates them from traditional native experience. Besides, ecommerce attracts a wide range of consumers worldwide and boost company profits by investigating the global market with local competitors. Accurate translation and localization techniques are crucial to access the local market. You must consider your ecommerce website translation into different languages so that it can target potential customers.
There are more than 70 suggested languages to localize your ecommerce site. You need professional translators for that (human translation still wins if you have a budget for that). Or at least some machine translation services if human translation is out of scope (neural machine translation from a specialized provider can be your best bang for a buck, especially if there's a translation integration/connector and automation available for your site). Done is better than perfect, right?
Consumers will trust your product if you translate an ecommerce site into their language. That's why the highest quality of everything they lay their eyes on is of utmost importance. That includes all details, and layout and language are critical among those.
Once you decide to expand your business, you need to look carefully at your product. Is your product going to get on other exchanges? You also need to pay close attention to how your competitors are doing internationally and assess the reasons behind their success. It will help you improve your results. You will also learn if your product holds additional value in the international market?
To get more traffic for your ecommerce website, your site needs to be translated and localized. It will create a level of comfort and build consumer trust. The localized site will enhance your consumers' loyalty and help develop a trustworthy and robust relationship between your business and consumers.
When you include post-sale service in your consumers' language, they feel privileged. They think that your brand is accessible, and that's why they return to your site again and again. With a localized ecommerce website, you can distinguish your brand's global presence in the market. Your consumers will feel a sense of belonging, and they will believe that you value their culture.
By localizing your ecommerce website, you actually make it accessible to your potential consumers. Providing information in their language will enhance their customized shopping experience. Many ecommerce sites personalize potential customers' shopping experience by giving them exclusive vouchers on special cultural occasions. Many prospective consumers also receive recommendations based on their past purchases.
To provide personalized customer service to the consumers, the website also shows them the most viewed or most purchased products. For successful e-commerce translation, it is essential to consider the cultural significance. Cultural relevance requires the promotion of local holidays and local values and customs. This way, you can create a local brand image, making your consumers' shopping experience custom and remarkable. One of the easiest ways to involve clients is to interact with them.
For this purpose, you can deliver custom messages to your consumers. You can form customized messages based on the cultural context and use them to derive traffic to your ecommerce website.
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You might be thinking that localizing your ecommerce website is more complicated than you believed. However, no matter how challenging or complex it looks, it is doable and guarantees significant results. You will notice increased web traffic, higher conversion rate, delighted consumers, and of course, improved ROI (return on investment).
Below we have shared some secrets and tricks of ecommerce website localization to help you make the most out of it.
Ecommerce websites generally have various content, such as product descriptions, price tags, size charts, shipping information, and more. Typically, while localizing the content, you don't have to translate the entire website from scratch. You can also add a few translation snippets to the original website, and continuous localization can help you with this.
Continuous localization works best for projects that evolves constantly. For example, your team makes minor updates to the site content regularly. They can highlight such updates, and your professional translation services provider can make the necessary changes. Remember, it is always best to use native speakers to avoid sloppy translations. You can always discuss these details with your translation agency before you start the project. Communication is the key.
Market research is the most crucial step before localizing your eShop. You must thoroughly research your existing consumers' data to find out the regions they are coming from. You can then utilize this data to determine your target region and, ultimately, the languages you must consider for localization.
It is also essential to research what would be the ideal products for your new target market. For instance, if your ecommerce website deals in clothes, the United States' clothing line may be entirely different from Asia.
The best way to determine product for the potential target market is to use Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends. These tools are handy when it comes to determining what products will be best for a specific region. You can also consider using social media to determine what your potential buyers are looking for.
It might not be necessary to localize the entire web content. If you plan to introduce only specific products in a new region, you probably don't have to localize your whole website. It is crucial to decide whether your website holds more value for your target market or the products. It is possible that your potential consumers are happy to purchase from a site in English. Although, it is always advisable to localize the app (if applicable).
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Professional SEO can increase engagement, traffic, and conversion on your localized website. Well-managed, professional SEO services can increase your website traffics and help generate increased conversion. You need to carefully search the keywords to optimize your site in a particular region for your ecommerce website. Different cultures and languages mean different keywords.
You have to conduct keyword research and optimize the right key phrases in your translated content. It includes the meta descriptions, titles, subtitles, product descriptions, URLs, and other website content. Search engines love it when you think about your audience.
An ecommerce site is incomplete without prices. Consumers like to see prices in local currency as nobody wants to go into complicated currency conversions. If you would prefer, you can put the prices in the local currency and original currency.
For currency, it is crucial to use appropriate symbols and codes. Also, use local measurement units where applicable. If you are in the clothing line business, use the appropriate sizing charts according to the region.
You might be surprised to know that the average cart abandonment ratio is quite high. More than 70% of the shoppers who add items into their cart never make it to the checkout page. If you don't localize the shopping cart of your site, this ratio might even increase.
It means that localizing the shopping cart can significantly impact your business. Consider making significant changes in the shopping cart to make it convenient and user-friendly as per the region's local requirements. Moreover, add the local currency and payment options that are popular locally.
Of course, if a terminology varies even in the same language, it shifts entirely from one language to another. For example, 'elevator' and 'lift' have the same meaning. However, the word 'elevator' is used in American English, while 'lift' is standard in British English.
It is essential to pay close attention as a language may sound entirely different depending on the people who speak it. We suggest that you investigate the use of words, their meanings, and definitions in different cultures.
Date and time formats are other critical factors as incorrect formatting may confuse or even deter your customers. In most countries, the day comes first, while the year usually comes last "(DD/MM/YYYY)." However, in some countries, people follow the "YYYY/MM/DD" format.
There are two standard time formats; 24-hour and 12-hour. In the United States, it is more common to use the A.M./P.M. time format. However, in Europe, 24-hour time is more common.
A website has much more than just text-based content. To connect with the local audience better, replace the pictures and videos that do not suit the local target market. For example, if you're entering the Asian market, it would be more appropriate to use pictures and videos of Asian models instead of Caucasian models.
Localized website is an excellent way to grow your online business, but it's almost useless without simultaneous testing. You need to make sure that you do everything the right way, and there are no loopholes.
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E-commerce translation is much more than just a global trend. It is crucial to explore new markets with your products and grow your eShop business globally.
Making your ecommerce platform multilingual the way that it speaks to your different target locales so that it boosts your customer experience can be a challenge. It requires many elements to be taken into account in terms of availability in a new language: positioning in search engine results, customer service, customer support, linguists, glossaries, translation memory technologies, to name just a few that make a difference in a global marketplace.
Ecommerce companies from all corners of the world, from China, Japan through Italy, Spain, Germany, France, United Kingdom to United States and Canada, do all they can to make their translation process and translation project workflow return the ROI they expect. Whether you use Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce for your business, want to reach your customers worldwide with App Store product descriptions in Spanish or want your future Czech customers see your user reviews on Amazon in their language, localizing your ecommerce business is always your first step to dominate your niche globally. Without that, nothing will happen. Times have changed forever.
Are you ready for the new era of commerce now? Go and grow!
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