Whether you operate a large resell website or your own small eCommerce shop, reaching a global audience can sometimes seem daunting. With so many different languages and territories with potential customers, how can you possibly hope to reach all of them? Localization has proven itself to be a worthy addition to the eCommerce scene, with sites such as Amazon and Etsy offering different landing pages for numerous languages.
According to AMA, 94% of companies plan to expand their localization processes in the near future, with 50% of them afraid that the process is too complex to handle. However, the benefits of running a multilingual eCommerce brand far outweigh the initial planning troubles. Let’s take a look at why localization is the key to build a global eCommerce brand no matter what industry or specialized niche you may want to target.
Breaking Linguistic Barriers
The most obvious benefit of investing in eCommerce localization is the fact that more people will be able to enjoy your content. Whether it’s your product store or blog, localized content will allow for a plethora of customers to engage with your content.
It’s worth noting that several of the most popular languages in the world such as Spanish, German and Chinese will already bump up your website’s popularity by a large margin. The reason for this is simple – not everyone speaks English sufficiently well to be able to browse eCommerce sites and order online goods. To that end, breaking the linguistic barriers can work in your benefit quite a bit.
Growing Traffic & Engagement
When it comes to the numeric benefits of website localization, you can look forward to much larger traffic in the near future. According to reports by Shopify, close to 17% of the global eCommerce traffic is made in the US. The remaining 83% of global customer traffic is done outside of the Western hemisphere, meaning that websites with English as the only language option will not perform as well as before.
The fact that you offer localized product descriptions, landing page and checkout forms (as you should) will bring a lot of new customers to your brand. Not only that but so will the overall conversion rates (visitor to customer) see an improvement. After all, the greater your conversion rates, the more revenue you will make at the end of the day.
Becoming a Competitive Brand
We’ve mentioned sites such as Amazon and Etsy for a good reason. These websites are eCommerce giants and for good reasons. The sheer volume of attention towards User Experience (UX) found on these websites is something that many brands could learn from. By introducing localization to your storefront, you will effectively become a more competitive brand on the global eCommerce market.
This means that competitive websites might notice your efforts to fight for customer engagement and so will retailers and manufacturers. Investing in your website’s approachability and versatility in terms of multilingual support will allow you to attract numerous business partners and opportunities. This will open doors for product portfolio expansions and business growth due to your popularity with overseas businesses who might want to work with you.
Favorable SEO Ranking
In terms of online popularity, localization can add a lot to your brand. Google and alternative search engines operate based on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when it comes to displaying relevant results. The more “relevant” your website is to whoever is conducting a search, the more likely you are to appear at the top of the results page.
In order to do so, however, you will have to abide by SEO rules when localizing your content. Every language has its own set of trending keywords in different languages so it’s important to localize your site carefully. The start things off, you can check out SEO tools such as Google Keyword Planner and SEM Rush to find out which words and phrases you should include in your product descriptions and blog posts.
Platforms such as The Word Point will allow you to create well-optimized writing through their content localization services. Coupled with editing and legibility tools such as Grammarly and Hemingway, it will allow you to strike a healthy balance between translated content and SEO requirements in each language. While it may seem complicated at first, once you get into the rhythm of writing and SEO, your site’s Google ranking will skyrocket.
Social Proof Possibilities
No matter what you sell through your eCommerce store, people will likely want to see some social proof in regards to it. Social proof in online sales can be anything from reviews, customer quotes, live demonstrations or numeric and infographic data. This data serves as literal “proof” of quality and trust in regards to whatever item a visitor is thinking about buying.
When it comes to localized social proof, the possibilities are endless since you will have access to people from all across the world. This can serve to further prove the point of how well-made and durable your products are once you collect reviews and testimonials from around the globe. Once you publish the social proof, your engagement and conversion rates will increase further, allowing for even more revenue as time goes by.
Worthwhile Return on Investment
As you’ve no doubt surmised by now, localization can bring a lot to your doorstep if implemented correctly. However, localization will require resources and time investment on your part before everything is in its place. You will have to either hire translators full-time or opt for third-party agencies as mentioned above.
Localizing the eCommerce shop on your own is not advised since you can easily mistake a single term and create confusion on your website. Localization should only be done by graduated professionals or native speakers – anyone else should be careful about what they do. No matter how you turn it, however, localization is very worthwhile in terms of ROI it brings over time.
In Summation
In order to go global, you will have to meet your target audience halfway. As we’ve previously mentioned, people are far more likely to engage with your product portfolio in their native languages as opposed to the default English.
Make sure that you can support multiple languages and their optimization long term if you opt for eCommerce localization. If done properly, your brand will grow in revenue and popularity exponentially throughout different regions across the world.
