It is the 21st century, and gone are the days when people relied on traditional, physical stores to purchase goods. As the world progresses towards finding the wonders that the internet has to offer, the shopping and retail business has now taken the shape of E-commerce—online stores that bring sales to its owners from across the world.

The benefits of easy access and online retail availability that these E-commerce stores have to offer are just the tip of the iceberg. The E-commerce store owners and businesses are quickly jumping on the bandwagon to expand their services to other regions and countries in a bid to capture more markets, convert potential customers and maximize their profits.

This is where E-commerce translation comes in.

The translation of E-commerce websites is more than just the conversion of one language to another. It is the complete overhaul of all E-commerce elements and processes that are a vital part of the retail business.

One could ask, why do we need E-commerce translation in the first place? The answer lies in statistical data.

According to Common Sense Advisory, 55% of consumers prefer to shop online in their native language, and English is not the native language of all these 55% of retail customers. The global E-commerce business is expected to increase by 13.5% every year, while the global customer size is also expected to multiply over the years.

In such a scenario, which business can afford to stay put while the rest of the companies take advantage of the booming E-commerce sector?

This is why it is extremely important to translate E-commerce websites and stores in the language of the target customers and we offer some killer tips for ensuring success in the global E-commerce market.

1. Know Your Customers
This is perhaps the most important of the tools that a company can use to increase its sales in the E-commerce sector. To know where all the customers are located, some of the tools that can be used are Google Analytics, Google Market Finder and Research tools. Once you use these tools, you can track and locate the highest online traffic easily, analyzing user behavior and shopping tendencies.

Planning to take your E-commerce business on the international stage involves more than just knowing where your customers are located—you need to have insights about the languages they speak and the countries they belong to. Once you have the data in your hands, it becomes easy to serve these markets through your E-commerce stores.

2. Focus on Providing Global CMS
CMS or Content Management System is one of the most important tools that can be used for extending your E-commerce store globally. But a global CMS comes with its own set of challenges—as you add more languages to your CMS, maintenance becomes a complex task. To deal with that, use a CMS that is fully compatible with Unicode support, which will enable your site to handle all characters in your chosen languages without any errors or glitches.

A global CMS can do wonders for your E-commerce store. It will not only streamline important updates for a changing website but will also support all the languages that your customers speak, enabling a smooth workflow and ability to export and import XML content with ease.

3. Have a Look at Your SEO Strategy
If you own an online E-commerce store, chances are you are already aware of the SEO strategy that is most commonly used in your local market. However, once you decide to step out of your local market, you need to analyze and then revamp your SEO strategy to fit the needs of the target audience.

To stay afloat in the global race for success, you need to fully localize your search results language. As keywords are unique in each international market, the translation of your keywords needs to be paired up with keyword research—and this is where the global analytics tools come into play again.

However, in an effort to localize and translate your keywords for international markets, a thorough research is a must. Some countries, such as China, does not use Google as its local search engine. So having complete knowledge of each country’s search engines will give you better insights on how to capture them.

Read Also: Lithuania business and translation

4. Adapt Your Site Design
The knowledge you gain about your potential markets and customers will be a total waste if your E-commerce site is not ready. This is the power of “localization” or adaptation of your website to suit the needs and preferences of your target customers. And this adaptation does not only include E-commerce translation. Your site needs to go through a comprehensive adaptation process in order to make it visually appealing as well as comprehensible for the millions of international customers out there.

When you decide to step into the global world, you need to have a complete knowledge of the norms and preferences that global customers possess. If you want to add Japan to your E-commerce customers list, you should be aware that Japanese users are more attracted to sites with a ton of graphics and animations, whereas people in England prefer a simpler and plain layout. Adapting your site design will ensure you make it through the eyes of the customers to their “consideration list”.

5. Hire a Reliable Translation Partner
When all research and data-gleaning is done, the only step is to start your homework on taking your E-commerce websites global. It goes without saying that a company that is heading out of its local market for the first time will need a reliable partner which has complete and comprehensive knowledge of the target market.

Without the support of a translation partner, the journey to global fame and success will be almost impossible.

This is where translation companies come into play.

The task of adapting your E-commerce websites can best be handled by an expert and professional translation partner which has all the knowledge of what makes the international customers tick. However, making the choice of which translation company to choose is as tough as making the global transition possible. Make sure your chosen translation partner has the right quality standards, procedures, reliable translation team, and successful projects at its disposal in order to make your E-commerce translation a global success. Not only that, the translation agency should ensure all your store features, language and layout are fully adapted according to the needs of the target markets for feasible and beneficial globalization.

Conclusion
If you own an E-commerce store and want to expand your customer base beyond your current market, all you need is an expert approach to E-commerce translation and localization that will ensure your store does not stay behind in the race for global success. Remember, limiting yourself to a local market only will not only make you lose sales, it will be hazardous for your business in terms of revenue and growth—a risk you should not take.