Setting up online stores with an effective international profile is not a sure-fire success. It requires proficient, highly dedicated experts from a wide variety of fields who understand the respective business models, technology, marketing, and culture. And language is always at the center of these efforts.
Why is it necessary to internationalize e-commerce? The main benefit is that it is borderless. As long as it is legally and logistically possible, any web store can be visited and used from any country in the world.
In practice, however, the issue is much more complex. To be successful across borders, an online store must be adapted to the target country as well as its cultural and linguistic characteristics on multiple levels.
5 tips to boost internationalization of your online shop
Expansion to other countries is a project that requires precise planning. Shooting from the hip is usually not the best internationalization strategy. We have compiled five of the most important recommendations that you should follow to ensure that your web store stands out in other markets.
Market analysis: Get really familiar with the target market
No matter how successful an online store is in its own country, it does not necessarily apply to the international market. Therefore, the first step of any expansion efforts must be to analyze the market in the target country. It is important to find out whether the products or services are even in demand in the respective country and what the competitive situation is like.
However, there is more to it than that. Strategic market analysis abroad also involves thorough analysis of cultural differences, customs, economic and legal conditions, as well as distinctive local idiosyncrasies. Economic data and information from trade associations are a good start, but you should gather a lot of information yourself, for example, through surveys or focus groups. Among other things, this type of analysis can help reprioritize portfolio items in the target country.
Localization of the legal conditions
It is just as important to adjust pricing and keep a close eye on exchange rates. The same applies to figuring out which payment methods are customary in the target country. In the USA and most Asian countries, e-commerce will fail if consumers cannot pay by credit card. By contrast, cash is still the most common method in several African countries.
Tax law is an important chapter in itself. Tax regulations vary extremely from country to country. Therefore, sound advice from experts in the respective tax legislation is indispensable for expansion. Of course, research must also focus on the conditions for logistics to identify which partner companies are available for shipping and as fulfillment service providers and what their respective conditions are. Last but not least, it is crucial to figure out whether it is customary to have the recipients pay the shipping costs and what delivery methods are preferred in the various countries.
Domain strategy: Why new markets need new URLs
It is vital to develop the right corporate strategy and legal structure to determine whether internationalization should be achieved through cross-border e-commerce or by establishing a physical branch in the target country. Either way, it is crucial to offer a separate web store for each target country.
One frequently overlooked detail is the choice of suitable URLs. For popular top-level domains such as *.com, it makes sense to use a subdomain or subdirectory for each language. This approach also helps establish a strong domain whose popularity radiates to the weaker websites. If the web store has a country-specific top-level domain, it is better to spend money on a new domain. Country-specific URLs are ranked lower by search engines in other countries, and a well-known domain extension also has a better psychological effect on potential customers.
Internationalize the header too
Speaking of SEO, hreflang is also crucial for successful international expansion. The small attributes in the website header signal to search engines that several language versions of a website exist. This ensures that users see the version of the page specified for their country. Google offers a helpful tutorial on correct implementation of hreflang.
CMS: Communicate efficiently while translating
Choosing the right content management system has a major impact on how easy the processes will subsequently be. CMS with localization plugins facilitate smooth data exchange with the translation service provider’s systems – regardless of the file formats used. This applies to exporting source texts as well as importing finished translations. If the target markets use other characters, it is also important to ensure that the CMS can handle them.
Translation: Expansion of e-commerce is based on language
A core element of internationalization is translation into the respective national language. An analysis by CSA Research, based on surveys of consumers in 29 countries shows just how important this step is. Two thirds of them generally prefer content in their own language, while 73% expect product descriptions and product reviews in the local language. 40% say they would never buy from foreign-language websites. Even if there are strong regional differences in this regard (for example, English is commonplace in Scandinavian countries, while foreign language skills are rare in the USA), the following still applies: Translation is an essential building block for success.
Localizing the General Terms and Conditions
It all starts with a text that isn’t one of the most popular tasks of a translation agency: The General Terms and Conditions. However, it is the keystone for the entire e-commerce website. If you don’t give your customers the opportunity to read, understand and, above all, agree to the General Terms and Conditions, you are entering into invalid contracts. Unfortunately, some legal terms and definitions do not have an exact equivalent in other languages. Therefore, translators and lawyers must work closely together to create a legally sound text. In many cases, it is necessary to paraphrase the content so that it conveys the meaning of the text as accurately as possible and thus retains the legally valid terms.
Expanding also means adapting the layout
It is important to note that translation does not only involve linguistic aspects. It also affects the layout and structure of the web store. A well-known phenomenon is the difference in text length. Different languages require different numbers of words to convey the same content. Literal machine translations often produce results that exceed the layout or do not fill it. Professional service providers find ways to carefully adapt texts so that they retain the layout. It is also particularly difficult with languages that are read from right to left. In this case, a complete mirroring of the layout can be the solution.
Every online store has its own SEO
Another important aspect is search engine optimization. Professional stores are optimized for the use of relevant keywords in order to be displayed preferentially by search engines. Simply translating these keywords is not a good strategy. Native-speaking translators are able to combine their own linguistic insight and intuition with appropriate optimization programs in order to raise the online store’s ranking in search results, even in multiple languages.
Transcreation: Why online retailers also need to understand the cultural aspects of the local market
And finally, the supreme discipline: transcreation , which goes far beyond pure translation and localization. Transcreation refers to transferring the emotions that a text or image evokes into the language of the respective country, which also entails conveying cultural aspects.
After all, what is e-commerce truly about? Obviously, there are customers who know exactly what they want and are only looking for the best deal. However, a good web store offers international customers a virtual window-shopping experience. It tells a story and inspires people to stay, look around and feel at home. It’s about more than just providing information. It’s about fulfilling wishes. And they can vary significantly in the target market.
Feeling good in the online store
It’s worth mentioning that people don’t feel comfortable on websites that sound “translated”. Often, this is attributable to little things that only professional native speakers know and feel, e.g. the tonality , individual terms, the specific type of humor, the appropriate translation of puns, the right personal approach. It’s about the culturally specific use of colors, symbols, and images.
Good online stores translate all of this into the culture of the target country. Good translation service providers create a world in which customers feel at home.
