14 Oct Localising an e-commerce site: a way of increasing your income
Do you have an online business and are wondering how to get the results you want?
The answer is: localise your e-commerce site!
Admittedly, we all know that the Internet has enabled us to reach worlds and markets – both new and undiscovered, but to really get in tune with these you have to, as they say, “speak the same language”. Launching your website in only one language is not going to allow you to reach any other clients than you already have in your own country. This is why everyone should consider investing in localising their e-commerce site.
But what exactly does it mean to localise an e-commerce site?
In order to truly understand the concept, it might be useful to go back to history: a nation could truly be said to have conquered another, along with its territory, when it was also able to gain a foothold in some way over its customs, languages and traditions. Centuries have passed and yet, in a different way, the need to conquer new markets has remained the same. In a nutshell, to localise an e-commerce site effectively, you have to reach out to the specific world you are trying to reach and embrace its language and culture. Once again, if you are thinking that this would involve a simple lexical translation, you are on the wrong track.
Localising your online store involves a very wide range of aspects, from those that are easy to understand to those that would be more difficult for you to consider.
Would you ever have guessed, for example, that even just the positioning, the size, the naming of a particular button within your website is capable of affecting, both positively or negatively, the client’s shopping experience? As well as potentially making it impossible for them to navigate the site?
With this in mind, localising an e-commerce site is an indispensable step for selling products in any market. If you’re still in doubt, then please keep reading.
Why is it important to localise an e-commerce site?
It is easy to see the importance of the visitor’s being able to browse a website that speaks their native language: the more they are able to understand it, the easier it will be for them to move around within it, to feel at ease and to have a positive and reassuring experience that is more likely to induce them to make a purchase.
An e-commerce site does not communicate with words alone: there are a number of cultural and symbolic subtleties, numbers and values that contribute equally to the construction of meaning in the user’s mind. A potential client browsing for a specific product will be greatly deterred from buying anything, if the price is in a currency he or she is unfamiliar with.
Failure to take care of this detail will lead to doubt and confusion (“how much is it?”, “how much is the price difference?”, “can I afford it?”) which, given the current wide range of products on offer, will lead to the customer choosing to buy from the company that makes the experience more user-friendly. The same principle applies to dates and times, clothing sizes, units of measurement and payment methods (the popularity of which differs from country to country).
The real obstacle to be overcome, therefore, is not just the linguistic one, but the cultural shock one may experience when navigating a site made for a non-native country. Relying on a specialised team of translators and localisers is the only way to ensure that this does not happen. In most exceptional cases, localising an e-commerce site is so effective that it gives the consumer the impression that the company comes from his or her own country of birth, bridging the gap between the brand and its customers.
Conclusions
The benefits in terms of sales are also considerable from a forward-looking perspective. The fact that the user identifies with a given brand will greatly contribute to brand loyalty. Carrying out the same process on a variety of markets outside the local market by localisation, will inevitably lead to global market entry and a substantial increase in sales as a result. Needless to say, localising an e-commerce site is an extremely delicate process on which the success of the business depends: a language and its culture must be handled with care and, above all, with competence, which can only be guaranteed by experts in the field.
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Maria Giacalone (Marketing team Intern at Creative Words)
Endlessy curious she has a new fixation every month. Overthinking champion, music enthusiast and stationery lover, she will try to guess your zodiac sign. Currently reading: “Somehow I manage” by Michael Scott.
