What Is Localization and Why Should You Care About It?
As your eCommerce store grows and evolves, you’ll probably venture into serving different markets and segments. After all, when you restrict yourself to doing business in your home country, you’re basically selling yourself short, and leaving money on the table. In the US, consumers spent $449.88 billion on eCommerce sites in 2017; this represented a 15.6% year-over-year increase from 2016. In China, on the other hand, online sales soared 28% to $877 billion in 2017. So: stay in your home country… or start serving buyers from across the world? The answer is obvious. Now, here’s where localization comes in.
Defining Localization, Internationalization, and Globalization
Two concepts that are intrinsically linked to localization are internationalization and globalization. First up, globalization is defined as the “spread of products, technology, information, and jobs across national borders and cultures.” Basically, globalization refers to the interdependence of nations and involves the various world economies becoming more interlinked and connected.
Falling under the umbrella term of globalization are internationalization and localization. Localization refers to the modification of a business or asset to cater to a specific target market. Here, your goal is to tweak your asset to make it more relevant to your target audience. For instance, if you’re trying to break into the Asian market, but your website exclusively features stock images with Caucasian models, there’s obviously a misfit there.
Internationalization, on the other hand, refers to the act of engineering certain assets (products, applications, websites, etc) in a way that allows them to be easily localized. For instance, when building a website, you might choose to use tools that support international character sets or allocate extra space as a buffer for when copy is translated into a different language.
The Business Importance of Localization
Localization is exceptionally crucial for eCommerce business owners because 72.4% of global consumers say that they prefer to use their native language when shopping online. Furthermore, 55% of these consumers also state that they would only buy products from websites in their own language. In other words: if you don’t localize your website and eCommerce store when entering a new market, you’re setting yourself up to fail.
Localization is considered a Strategic Marketing asset as any mishap could potentially damage a brand’s name and consequently have a direct negative impact on sales. It goes one step beyond translation: it’s the key point of entry to successful market penetration within countries sharing the same language but where people don’t necessarily share the same beliefs, customs, cultures or values. Localizing your content and site brings a lot of benefits to the table, including:
- Finding new opportunities
- Growing revenue
- Building closer customer relationships
- Providing a better experience
- Preventing communication errors
- Avoiding culturally inappropriate language
Consumer Behavior and Localization Data
The following table illustrates the impact of localization on consumer preferences and market potential based on industry research:
| Metric | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Consumers preferring native language for online shopping | 72.4% |
| Consumers who only buy from websites in their own language | 55% |
| Consumers who value language information more than price | 56.2% |
| Marketing leaders agreeing that localization drives revenue | 74% |
Building a Localization Strategy
Expanding your business into new markets isn't just swapping one word with another in a foreign language and calling it a day. Instead, you need a localization strategy. A localization strategy is a business plan for how you will adapt your communication methods to the linguistic and cultural customs of a target market. The strategy sets the direction for how your company will adjust the contents of your website, marketing campaigns, social media, and other parts of the user experience to attract local customers.
To ensure a successful international market penetration, your strategy should address:
- Which markets you want to target and why
- The adaptability of your brand
- The languages spoken in the target markets
- Culture and socio-political attitudes
- Purchasing habits and preferences
- The accessibility of global marketing channels
Specifically, you can follow these recommended steps to build your strategy:
- Find target markets in line with your business goals.
- Create a localized marketing strategy.
- Implement localization in design and development.
- Optimize your website for different countries.
- Use tools to enhance your translation workflow.
Localization decision-making is a tough choice since you need to consider the money factor at all times. You need to project the cost-benefit and assess if there is a potential opportunity for growth and revenue. However, as Nelson Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
