The growing popularity of online shopping is impossible to overlook. And the pandemic sent the growth of e-retail into overdrive. Statista projects global online sales of around €4.61 trillion in the B2C sector by 2025. In what other ways will e-commerce grow in the future? What trends can help you get a bigger piece of the pie? From new realities to a social media presence to voice commands through to the translation of your online shop, we take a deep dive into this year’s B2C and B2B e-commerce trends.
Mobile-friendly
In 2021, online purchases averaged $84.24 each for orders placed via smartphone. And this number is only going up. A mobile-friendly website will also be more important for you in 2022. After all, in a world where many consumers are always on the go, you have to be available whenever and wherever it suits the customer – especially on their phone.
Social commerce
Online shopping is getting more social. Content marketing in all its many facets is on the rise. Customers want storytelling and emotions that move them to act. Influencers’ “personal” reports, live videos and affiliate links on third-party sites help customers develop a personal relationship to and trust in your products.
Artificial Intelligence & Augmented Reality
Customers want entertainment on the technical side as well. And they get it from chatbots that give them personalized product recommendations to minimize shopping frustration, interactive video shopping via app, and virtual reality goggles. Augmented reality (AR) is gaining traction, especially in the fashion industry and in interior decorating. Customers are more willing to buy a product if they don’t just see it as a 3D model but can use AR to see what it will look like on them or in their living room.
Interactive technologies help create unique customer experiences. And one thing is for sure: your competition isn’t snoozing, so if you don’t make the effort to provide these experiences, you’ll soon be left behind.
Voice search optimization
With the growing number of smart home devices like Alexa and Google Home, consumers are increasingly making use of voice search to shop, manage their time and order food. Google estimates that the phenomenon known as voice commerce will account for nearly one third of all online purchases by 2030. That makes optimizing the keywords and content in your shop that much more vital, so that even voice searches find you.
Translations of your online shop
If you build it, the customers will come? Maybe, maybe not. Your chances are much better if your customers understand you. There are now 3.6 billion e-commerce shoppers worldwide. There are also around 6,900 living languages – i.e. those that are currently spoken. So it’s no surprise that a monolingual website has only a limited reach. If you want to make better use of all that potential global business, there’s no substitute for a multilingual e-commerce outlet, which means translations of your online shop. But with that number of languages spread across the globe, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
So let’s look at the major trending language in 2022:
1. English
The classic commerce language, and rightly so. English is not only spoken by 373 million native speakers but is also the first foreign language taught in many countries. More than half of all websites are published in English and 949 million people use the internet in English, which catapults it to the top of the list of internet languages. Incidentally, the United Kingdom leads Europe in online shopping. So if your store is not available in English, an important market is passing you by.
2. Spanish
A total of 548 million people around the world speak Spanish. If you have Spanish content, it opens doors to more than 20 countries including up-and-coming nations like Mexico. But it also gets you access to many consumers in the US, where Spanish is the second most widely spoken language.
3. German
If your online shop is not available in German, it probably should be: 134.6 million people speak German, including those in Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein. Germany is not only Europe’s strongest economic engine but also its largest consumer market.
4. Arabic
Arabic is often referred to as the language of the future. The economy is booming in the Middle East, and in 2022 a major event in Qatar will attract attention and visitors to the region: the FIFA World Cup. Nearly 300 million people speak Arabic as their first or second language, and it is divided into five large dialect groups. Since English is not widely spoken in these countries, you should think about having your online shop translated into Arabic if you want to penetrate this market.
5. Asian languages
It’s also worth taking a look at Asia: Malaysia topped the charts worldwide in terms of e-commerce users in 2021, and Indonesia had the highest percentage of general online purchases. China, the No. 1 up-and-coming economic powerhouse, has almost 930 million native Mandarin speakers, making it a substantial market. In fact, Mandarin is the second most common internet language.
Of course, there may be many other languages that are relevant for you. It may be helpful to check what languages your competitors are using. Does it make sense for you to follow suit? Or do you prefer take another route? ACT Translations can support your expansion in over 150 languages. What else should you keep in mind for your multilingual e-commerce options? Find out in additional blog posts.
Ready to benefit from these trends and have your online shop translated professionally? Get in touch with us today.
