The coronavirus pandemic has reached almost every country in the world. It has left national economies and businesses counting the costs. With government-requested lockdowns and people having to stay home, the digitalization of offline businesses grew. And according to a survey entitled “COVID-19 and E-commerce”, of about 3,700 consumers in nine emerging and developed economies the COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed online shopping behaviors. Based on the study due to the pandemic, more than half of the people participating in the survey now shop online more frequently. It has already been stated by the marketing researchers, that the pandemic has pushed e-commerce five years into the future. And these emerging e-commerce covid19 trends are here to stay.
Today’s customer is more adjusted towards digitalization. We make online purchases more than ever. But even when a website offers exactly what we are looking for or desperately want, if it is in a language we don’t understand we might feel unsafe to make the purchase from that website. That is why the businesses that recognize the need to localize their e-commerce websites reign supreme in the market.
From the Food Industry to Clothing, Everyone goes eCommerce!
During and after Covid19 millions of merchants have turned to popular online platforms such as Wix, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento to take their consumers’ shopping experiences online. Many local merchants virtually shifted overnight from in-store orders to online purchases and shipping options. In fact, 20-30% of businesses moved online during the pandemic’s peak. For instance, grocery e-commerce soared in the second week of March 2020. Home goods and fitness products also saw considerable sales growth. Recreational goods spending increased by 18% due to increased spending on home gym equipment and the furnishings and household equipment sector grew by 5.7%.
From purchasing everyday items and grocery shopping to buying clothing items and household items, all aspects of shopping life are now easily available online. This is when e-commerce localization becomes so important.
Why localize your e-commerce website?
From what we can tell localization is the future of e-commerce. The benefits of localization for an e-commerce company can be summed up simply: localization equals more sales. Today’s businesses attract shoppers with specifically tailored online content that appeals to their target audience. It helps to gradually build relationships. In return, the relationship eventually culminates in increased sales.
As we know most of the websites online are in English. But according to “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” CSA Research, 79% of those who don’t read English rarely or never visit a website in that language. And 51% of survey respondents would prefer to have local-language content instead of English.
We all agree that it is a huge market to miss. That is why localization is so important to e-commerce.
How to successfully localize your e-commerce website?
If you want to localize your e-commerce website, you can either do it yourself or save yourself from a headache and trust it to professional e-commerce translation agencies. If you want to localize yourself, here are some useful tips:
To localize successfully, you can use the winning e-commerce localization strategy. It covers the 4 Ps of a consumer’s experience:
- Pre-visit: Pre-visit includes all materials that relate to users’ association with a company even before they visit the company’s website.
- Pre-purchase: Pre-purchase includes users’ visual and auditory experience while they are on site.
- Purchase: From the starting point to the shipment, this includes users’ purchasing experience in its entirety.
- Post-purchase: This covers all follow-up user communications after the customer made a purchase.
Now that we have covered the 4 Ps, let’s dive deeper. Here are some other aspects to pay close attention to:
Language
Localization is not just a simple translation. As the content on your website is the key part of your business’s overall presentation, the translation cannot and should not be literal and word-by-word. You need to make sure you accurately convey the message. When localizing you need to take into account factors like the tone of voice, correctly used words as well as symbols. Phrasal verbs and idioms should be localized taking into consideration cultural differences. Do not forget about the importance of accurately structuring sentences and correct grammar. Another thing to pay attention to is untranslatable and international terms, as they are some of the most widespread difficulties. Besides the untranslatable and international terms, another difficulty is the terminology.
Basically, during localization, you also need to make sure to appeal to specific regional or cultural groups you are doing the localization for.
SEO
Ranking highly in search engines such as Google, Yandex or Baidu is one of the prime motives behind much online content created in the whole world. But when it comes to a global e-commerce site, they must be optimized for searches carried out in each local market around the world. This localized form of SEO involves applying the same dedicated SEO techniques used for a site’s original language and location to each market’s preferred search engines, ways of phrasing, and search priorities.
User Experience
Last but not least, user experience needs to be a top priority. Make sure to include FAQs or frequently asked questions, as they will improve the overall experience. The privacy policy also needs to be available both for legal and UI points and it should correspond to the privacy policy guidelines and regulations. The checkout page needs to be easy to understand and use. You also need to make sure it is safe and secure to use. In case your customers want to contact you for questions or suggestions, always include a contact form. By that, your customers will easily be in contact with you.
Localization is truly the future of e-commerce. Although it’s beneficial from the business point of view, it is also a tricky task. If you want to do it, then do it right. Contact us to help you localize your website. Our professional team will help you with e-commerce translation services.
