E-Commerce companies that do business in globally face several challenges, including logistics, shipping issues, legal constraints, transaction difficulties, language barriers, and the like. According to studies like “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” from Common Sense Advisory, buyers are much more likely to make a purchase if the relevant information is available in their native language. This is good reason to localize an online store for European audiences. Localizing your online shop is a good and inexpensive way to increase your customer base, even if the customers have 2nd or foreign language capabilities in English.
If you’ve outgrown your national market or if you want to expand into other countries, internationalization is especially more key for you. The next step would in this case be to find a country whose citizens might want to buy your products and/or services, and in order to realize this, you must create an infrastructure that allow the new customer-base to easily and frictionless order products from your company. For detailed thoughts on how to internationalize your E-Commerce business, we recommend that you read ‘8 Things To Do When Internationalizing Your E-Commerce Business‘
1. Localization of Your Online Store is Highly Important
In a study by Pitney Bowes that surveyed 12,000 people from 12 countries, it was found that almost 40% of consumers have purchased something online from another country. This is especially true for residents of Australia (63%), Canada, and Russia (54% each). A common globalization strategy among successful online retailers usually starts with the most promising markets before expanding outward into others. We can see examples of this throughout Europe where providers translating their services to many languages would be too expensive.
2. Automatization and Technological Support
Consider technological support from the start to make translating your online store simpler down the line. We also recommend implementing automation measures. Updating or adding new products to an online store is much easier when there is a translation workflow process in place. Automated workflows are the next logical step; for example, conducting a daily search of changes in the product database and forwarding these changes to a fully-automated translation method.
3. Powerful Translation Management
By working with a Translation Management System, you can save both money and time by recycling old translations instead of having your translators start from scratch.
Combining machine translation with human translators can be a great way to save money, especially when translating large amounts of similar text.
There are several companies offering this service, so it is recommended that you find a partner that covers your exact needs and wants from the very beginning of your internationalization journey.
4. Global Expansion
In order to truly customize your website to the target market and the target culture, other adjustments must be made in addition to translating the website content. Think also about local content, images, local currencies, time zones, payment options, dimensions, and weights. Many more details on what to do can be found in the following article where you can read about 8 Things To Do When Internationalizing Your E-Commerce Business.
Conclusion
International businesses seeking an online presence should consider the global market potential. Specifically, using customers’ native languages will create more trust and understanding. To manage this effectively and without significant strain on time or budget, companies can use translation management solutions that provide built-in support tools, and there are many companies which offer this service on a global basis.
