Previously, shopping was a time-consuming and tiring process. You had to scour dozens of stores to find the perfect outfit and pay a premium.
Thanks to the advent of e-commerce, you can browse stores worldwide and get anything shipped home—all with the click of a button. E-commerce stores are a result of the globalization wave and have fared extremely well.
In 2022, retail e-commerce sales rose to $5.7 trillion worldwide and are expected to reach $8.2 trillion by 2026. Companies like Amazon, IKEA, Alibaba, and more make billions in revenue annually. But consumer convenience isn’t the only factor that has encouraged growth. Digging a bit deeper, these companies offer each consumer a localized and personalized experience, irrespective of location.
Localizing for international markets helps you tap into global audiences without needing physical stores. But what does it take to ensure that your entire store is optimized for each locale? Moreover, how can you achieve the sales results you're looking for?
In this article, we’ll guide you through everything from getting started with localization to best practices to ensure international success.
Moving away from a standardized experience to a localized experience can bode well for you and your business. Here are some of the benefits you can expect in the long term:
Deciding the right time to localize your store can be a daunting task. A good litmus test is whether you're considering international expansion.
Here are three aspects that positively indicate you should invest in this process:
Before starting the localization process, think about what you should localize first. Here are a few things you shouldn’t miss:
When it comes to domains, “.com” is one of the most familiar. Currently, 37% of websites share the .com domain, which acts as a marker for a global business.
However, many consumers prefer shopping from websites that have a local domain. It increases their trust in the brand and indicates that it's a safe e-commerce site to shop from.
Depending on the target audience and market, you can use any of these three domain structures:
You can offer local currency options depending on the country or region. It ensures that customers don't spend time converting the currency and can focus on finishing their online-shopping experience. It reduces the rate of abandoned carts as 16% of people abandon their carts when they can’t see/calculate the total order value upfront.
Ryan Stewart, Managing Partner at WEBRIS Legal Marketing Agency, says, "Consider using regional pricing models to adjust prices according to the cost of living. This helps create a sense of value for customers from different countries looking to buy from you."
Skullcandy’s India website with localized pricing and payment options. Source
Skullcandy’s South Korean website with localized pricing and payment options. Source
Customer service is a crucial part of a successful e-commerce business, and customers need to feel understood when they reach out with inquiries or problems.
According to Freddie Chatt, E-commerce SEO Consultant, there’s no point in launching in a new market but not offering local support.
You need to hire local staff for nuanced queries, and additionally, you can localize customer support materials, including the following:
Zara’s Delivery Methods Page in Spanish (for a Jamaican audience). Source
Localize your product descriptions and reviews to create a more optimized experience for customers in different countries. Localization helps you offer an accurate description of the product in the customer’s native language and ensures that there’s no room for misunderstanding.
Nike's Belgian store offers product descriptions in a Belgian dialect of German. Source
Plus, offering product reviews from customers in their local language increases trust in your product. In fact, 73% of users want product reviews in their own language. It gives them a sense that there are no issues with the shipped products, and they can shop confidently.
German review for a spice product on Etsy. Source
Businesses use blogs to attract more website visitors (a.k.a. potential leads). In fact, the average blog conversion is over 5% and can even reach 10% depending on how you optimize it.
For this reason, you need to localize your blog as it attracts more visitors to your site. And more visitors mean more potential customers. Ensure that every post is translated into your target language.
For example, Rover translated its website into eight different languages and connected pet owners with sitters in over 10 countries.
Rover’s translated blog posts for a Norwegian-speaking audience. Source
Localize all your videos, too, such as knowledge base videos, onboarding videos, social media content, case study snippets, and more.
For example, Butterfly Network localized all of its marketing videos through subtitle translation. This helped the company achieve localization of visual assets too, maximizing its efforts.
The Future of Social Media report found that 93% of business executives agree that companies are moving to social media for e-commerce. This is why it’s important to localize your social media content too. Creating region-specific content could increase brand affinity and conversions through social media.
McDonald’s Canada Instagram. Source
McDonald’s India Instagram. Source
Your e-commerce store localization strategy should include four simple steps:
Ensure that there actually is a demand for your product or service in the target market. If there isn't, then localization only wastes time and resources.
Even if there is demand, it's essential to understand what that demand looks like. You need to know what consumers in the target market are looking for and how they’d prefer to purchase your product or service. Only then can you appropriately tailor your localization efforts to meet their needs.
Invest in market research. Conduct consumer surveys, dig into existing customer feedback, and study market trends as well as industry- and region-specific growth to assess this.
Localize digital channels such as your websites, help centers, social media accounts, and email marketing campaigns. These channels act as initial touchpoints and play a huge role in conversion.
It also ensures your messaging is consistent regardless of the language or channel. It helps you gain your customer’s trust and increases brand awareness.
Also, investing in international search engine optimization efforts can increase your search presence globally. You can ensure your products are found online by incorporating the right keywords (search terms) in your website.
As customers tend to search using phrases in their local language, incorporating translated/localized terms on your web pages increases their visibility in search engines. When you do this, it helps search engines identify which countries you are targeting and languages you do business in.
After localizing your marketing materials, be sure to optimize the user experience too. Here are a few things you should focus on:
Separate the taxes and duty charges on your checkout page. Source
Different payment options between China and Germany. Source
As a Smartling user, your translators can visualize this while translating the text using our Visual Context tool. They can adjust the output based on how it fits on the page, leading to higher quality results.
Testing out the localized message ensures everything is accurate. You can A/B test each element and make the necessary adjustments to maximize conversions. Here's what you can check for:
This doesn't mean that it's a one-time process. You must keep reviewing your analytics and iterating to ensure nothing hampers conversions.
Here are a few tips to get the most out of the localization process:
Retail m-commerce (mobile commerce) sales are expected to account for 43.4% of total e-commerce sales in 2023. Consumers use their phones to research products, check prices and offers, try augmented reality experiences, and purchase products. So, tweak the mobile experience to reduce friction and maximize conversions.
It's not enough to simply translate the store's text. You need to understand linguistic conventions, cultural differences, and regional nuances of customer groups to provide an optimal customer experience.
In terms of linguistic conventions, you need to account for naming conventions, date format, currency format, and more. This ensures your store is culturally relevant and personalized to the customer's preferences.
You can use Smartling’s transcreation tool to help you achieve this. Here, you go beyond translation of words and incorporate style, tone, and intent while translating the words. This is particularly useful for creative copywriting where the intent doesn’t get translated well.
Daniel Chabert, CEO & Co-founder of Purple Fire, says, "Companies try to replicate a successful model from one country into another without taking into account any of the legal stipulations that come with it. It can lead to major problems down the line so it's important to thoroughly research each market before launching your product."
Consider consumer protection laws, data privacy regulations, and intellectual property rules. The United States has a taxation requirement called "consumption tax" on e-commerce purchases. So, be sure to consult a local lawyer before localizing your materials.
You're missing out on a big opportunity if e-commerce localization isn’t an element of your go-to-market strategy. E-commerce localization allows you to expand your reach to new markets, which can lead to increased sales and revenue.
When done right, it also provides a better experience for online shoppers, which can lead to repeat customers and brand loyalty.
Not sure where to start? Smartling can help. We offer machine translation, translation management systems, and localization services to quickly and accurately translate your e-commerce store's content into any language.
Book a demo with us today to learn more about how we can help you localize your e-commerce store for success in global markets.