As an inevitable step in the human path of evolution, and due to the unprecedented rise of technology, we have all witnessed a stunning global shift to ecommerce that made consumers hold power over the markets, demanding more personalized customer experiences meeting their very specific needs and preferences. Realizing that fact, the companies, which wanted to save their place and break through new marketplaces, played it smartly and adapted new ecommerce localization strategies, covering all the aspects from software localization and multilingual customer support to marketing campaign localization.
In the following article, I will take you on a quick tour to explore the e-commerce localization definition, its elements, advantages, and the risks of missing it.
Ecommerce Localization
When I look carefully at “Ecommerce Localization”, I figure out that it is not only about translating the content from one language to another, but it is about adapting the whole online shopping experience to specific users’ cultural, historical, traditional and economic preferences in certain markets; including localizing websites and apps, customer services and the dedicated marketing campaigns. Although the biggest companies have long understood the importance of ecommerce localization and invested heavily in their strategies, I assure you that ecommerce localization is not for big businesses only, because companies of any size can unlock global growth opportunities by getting the right ecommerce localization.
Ecommerce Localization Aspects
We can list the main ecommerce localization aspects as follows:
- UI & UX Localization.
- Content Localization.
- Customer Service Localization.
- Marketing Campaigns Localization.
Ecommerce Localization Benefits
After briefing the elements of ecommerce localization, let’s dig deeper together to reveal the most important benefits of ecommerce localization to businesses:
- Enhanced Customer Experience:
As widely evidenced, Ecommerce localization provides a reliable ecommerce experience to all customers to ensure receiving a top-grade user experience no matter where they are or which language they use.
- Efficient Sales Planning:
Investigating hundreds of localized ecommerce websites and apps, I came up with a fact that localization ensures that the right product is always available to the target customer at the right market, the right time, and in the proper language they use.
- Increasing International Sales:
Helping you adapt to the global market requirements and needs, ecommerce localization delivers a fast increase in sales by tapping into new markets and expanding the customer base.
- Consistent Global Branding:
Effective localization ensures that the brand message is consistent across markets, which fosters brand loyalty, trustworthiness and reliability, and hence driving overall sales up.
- Improved Customer Satisfaction:
Providing customers with experience that matches their preferences and needs, and meets their very specific requirements, Ecommerce localization helps achieve the same levels of customer satisfaction at the global markets just as the ones at the local ones.
Is it risky not to have an ecommerce localization strategy?
Having witnessed many companies failing to adapt to the new world fast changing methodologies, I can make it clear that companies which do not think of having ecommerce localization strategies may face serious issues, very serious ones, such as:
- Low Website Traffic.
- Low Conversion Rates.
- Low Sales and Revenue.
- Poor Customer Service.
- Poor Customer Satisfaction.
Contentech, Your Ecommerce Localization Ally
As a localization expert, I can confirm that the key to avoiding ending up with a scrappy site or a poorly localized one is to arm yourself with the right localization partner, and here we come.
Contentech helps businesses of all sizes make their content available in local languages through our provided website localization services, app localization, and SEO translation and localization that are the key to increasing discoverability and reaching the target audience all over the world.
We follow a strict methodology that adheres to the internationally applied ISO standards and the best practices of the industry where we conduct a Website Localization Analysis, then a Website Content Translation, followed by Visuals Adaptation, and finally Localization Testing and QA.
So, if you are still thinking locally, take it from an expert, it is time to start going beyond your own markets and reach globally.
