Localisation can improve the shopping experience

It's not the first time we've mentioned localisation and how it can help businesses improve. Online stores are gaining more and more visibility, and increasing numbers of companies are using these platforms to sell their products and expand internationally. Today we'll try to take a more in-depth look at this issue and talk about how localisation can improve the shopping experience.

We all know that businesses that use ecommerce increase their sales and improve their reputation, but it's no easy task. Many factors need to be taken into account, and it all depends on how effectively a website is localised. It can even lead to a loss of customers. Looking at the shopping experience is a way of improving the way online browsers interact with a website. It means you can see whether it's easy for browsers to find the content they're looking for or if, on the contrary, they leave the site without buying anything.

How can we prevent people from abandoning the shopping process?

For a sale to be successful, a number of steps need to be taken from the outset and should be followed to ensure that a user's visit is satisfactory.

• Attractive design: as the saying goes "you eat with your eyes", and on a website, you should follow the same philosophy. Good design is a showcase that will make your audience decide whether they want to visit a webpage or not. No matter how good your products are, if the website design isn't attractive it'll be hard to maintain your potential customer's attention.

• Speed: If your website doesn't load quickly there's no point having a good, attractive design. If a customer needs to wait too long they might get fed up and decide to abandon their purchase.

• Navigation: to complete the purchase process, the system will redirect the user to different pages such as the shopping basket, a page to enter payment details, and final confirmation, etc. If these links aren't perfectly anchored and don't redirect users to the right place you could lose a customer. This is why it's really important that the website navigation and structure are well-organised and that the process can be completed in as few steps as possible.

• Language: And if you're looking to expand to new markets, it's essential that your website is available in the language your consumers speak. And this isn't only the case for foreign markets. As we mentioned in our previous post, tourism is a key factor when it comes to investment in our country, given that many tourists who visit the country might want to buy something online that they've seen before their travels; if the website is in their language, it makes the potential sale much easier.

How can localisation improve the shopping experience?

In our previous point we looked at how you need to translate your website into several languages to reach more people, or there's no point in working on everything else. The challenge lies beyond translation - in knowing how to adapt content and make it suitable for the corresponding market; and that's why localisation is so important.

The products available on your online shop will be the same across the world, but the way you convey your message is what will make a difference. Selling a product in Spain isn't the same as selling it in China or the UAE. Every country has its own way of expressing itself, its culture, its norms, etc.

These are some of the elements you need to adapt in order for your website to be well localised.

• Contents: the content of a website is just as important as the way it's translated. If you don't think so, ask the brand KFC how things went when they translated their "Finger lickin' good" slogan in China as "Eat your fingers off". It didn't go down well due to their culture and customs. Localisation has an impact here. Depending on the country you're trying to target you may need to adapt your message by adding or removing content. This applies to many countries, depending on the type of advertising, so you need to program your website to adapt the content and make certain things appear differently in certain countries.

• Terms and conditions of use: before you complete any purchase you need to accept the terms and conditions. For this part of your website it's important to have a professional who specialises in legal translation who understands the laws, privacy policies, and terms and conditions specific to each country.

• Other factors: payments, customer service, and logistics are also key factors for good localisation. It's important that the country's currency shows, to give the consumer security and confidence - in the same way that good personalised customer service will make them feel understood if they have any doubts. In terms of logistics you need to think about delivery times, taxes, proforma invoices etc... all of which may vary from country to country.

More and more companies are coming to translation professionals to localise their websites and improve their browsers' shopping experience. We know that each company has its own values and unique way of transmitting them to their audience.

At ATLS, we've got a large team of native speaking, professional translators, along with translation technology solutions for translating dynamic content - all tailored to our customers' needs. If you need advice on which way of working would best suit your business, don't hesitate to contact us. We'll help you find the best solution.