E-commerce Localization – Creating a Localized Buying Experience

Undoubtedly, as we know the e-commerce market is budding up with exceptional speed. Truly, buying online is becoming more and more prevalent. Living in a fast-moving digital world — and particularly now during the pandemic — leaves us no choice but to mark our presence to online shopping. It saves us time and resources as we don’t need to go somewhere physically — we can buy with just one click.

This shift to an e-Commerce model means that a suitable platform for online sales must be generated and made reachable and comprehensible for people coming from different and diverse regions. This is exactly where content localization is needed for e-commerce stores to help businesses become as authentic as possible for foreign markets.

To be clear, localizing content means taking into account regional details, local messages, and cultural modifications. Precisely, localization consists of three fundamentals: translation, localization, and transcreation. Thus, content localization means internationalization by making online stores reachable around the globe, in every regions’ very own language and within their cultural paradigm.

In today’s world of “One Click”, localization isn’t just an accessory but a necessity for all those e-commerce businesses and stores looking to expand globally. If you are wondering “Why does e-commerce store need localization?” – Well, as we know that e-commerce is online business and the more people see the content, the more people are converted into the real-world clients. Localized websites have an enhanced chance of being visited by local target audiences. By executing content localization, businesses and brands have a much greater opportunity to enter into a foreign market. Native websites generate a seamless buying experience for foreign target audience.  Localization is a must for e-commerce businesses operating on an international level.

According to a 2014 study by Common Sense Advisory:

1. Approximately 72 percent of shoppers prefer to buy products in their native languages, and

2. 60 percent rarely or never transact with websites that provide English-only content.

Thus, it is clear according to the above research that localization is a requirement for e-commerce businesses and stores operating on an international level.  This means the added local-language content on a website during the course of the customer experience, the greater the prospect that the user will complete a transaction.

E-commerce localization is more than merely language translation. It is adjusting all of the main content of a website such as; text, photography, currency, logistics, branding, design in a such a way that it caters to definite regional audiences, translation and localization. E-commerce localization is about crafting a native know-how that identifies local or specific region’s consumer buying habits, accounts for local cultural signals, adjusts to regional technical necessities, and carries on the highly-personalized promise of a modern online marketplace, in other words “E-commerce Localization – Creating a Localized Buying Experience”.

To create a localized buying experience online for an E-commerce Store it is important that the businesses and brands:

Perform Extensive Market Research –

Researching audiences that are networking with a site is the first step to effectively generating a localized buying experience.

– What is common in a region?

– What charms the local population?

– What are the prevalent shopping days?

– What digital channels are they more accustomed to?

Choose Which Content to Localize –

This will include; Language, Currency, Symbols and Payment Preferences and a website design with the marketing material on it.

Understand Local Laws and Regulations –

it is imperative to recognize local regulations as they apply to doing business in different countries and how those regulations affect website development and localization.

Localized Social Media Is Crucial –

Social media rules the world of business today. Social media can be used to an advantage in an e-commerce business or store. To launch a store or business in a completely different region, it’s a great idea to create separate social media accounts and post graphics with local language written on it. Localized social media always drive more modified connections and progress the user experience.

Once an e-commerce business or store decides to localize their business, they’ll be able to reach much broader audiences with close to no exertion on their part. Consumers trust will be built in that brand and its products by looking at some well-written product descriptions in their own language or websites hosted on country-level domains are all signs that a business is serious and trustworthy.

The most apparent advantage of capitalizing in e-commerce localization is the fact that more people will be able to enjoy a brand’s or business content. Whether it’s a product store or blog, localized content will permit for a surplus of customers to engage with the business content online. It’s worth observing that numerous of the most popular languages in the world such as Spanish, German and Chinese will bump up a business websites status by an enormous edge. Hence, breaking the linguistic barricades can work in the benefit of any business or e-Commerce channel.

In addition, online popularity can add up a lot to a growing e-commerce brand. E-commerce store localization can gain a lot through Google and alternative search engines that operate based on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when it comes to displaying relevant results. The more “relevant” a website is to whoever is conducting a search, the more likely the website is to appear at the top of the results page. Thus, in mandate to do so, nevertheless, an e-commerce store will have to abide by SEO rules when localizing their content. Every language has its own set of trending keywords in different languages so it’s significant to localize the site cautiously.

To go global or to internationalize an e-commerce store, brands and businesses will need to meet their target audience language necessities. As mentioned above, viewers and customers online are far more likely to get involved with a product portfolio in their own native language as opposed to the default English. If e-commerce localization done appropriately, a brand will grow in revenue and popularity exponentially throughout different regions across the world.