Website Localization For E-Commerce – Which Languages Should Be Preferred?

With the spread of the Internet, the trade has also moved to the online environment. Today, the world’s e-commerce volume is worth 1.6 trillion dollars. We all know that there are a lot of e-commerce businesses willing to expand and go global. Yes, it is indeed a great plan. However, there is one small detail to watch out when expanding. It is called website localization for e-commerce. Keep reading to learn which languages should be preferred for your localization process.

The first challenge faced by those who aim to bring their products and services together with their potential customers in different countries during their globalization journey is to reach their target audiences, and the second one is to get this target audience to buy their products and services. The critical point in overcoming these two challenges is the e-commerce site localization.

Localizing your website in various languages and addressing your target audience in their own language will both enable your website to appear on the top in the web searches and increase your rate of sales significantly.

Why Website Localization for E-commerce Matters?

When the online buying behaviors of different countries are examined, it turns out that 45% of Internet users do not prefer to buy from a website in a language different from their native language. While aiming to get into global markets, English, the world’s most common language, is primarily preferred. However, despite the fact that almost all of the Internet users in Europe can speak English, 44% of these people have expressed that they prefer to view the websites they visit in their own native languages.

The research shows that your potential global customers need to understand and trust you in order to prefer purchasing your service or product. Recreating the content on your website in the language of your target audience will enable you to be understood by your target audience and build an environment of trust over the Internet. Commercial translation can be suitable for the description of products, its qualities and functions.

You have decided to get a website localization service. Well, what languages are used most in the contents on the Internet, and into what languages should you get your contents translated?

According to a survey carried out by W3Tech, the first 10 most common languages used in the Internet contents are as following:

Website Localization for E-Commerce by Numbers

Now, let’s have a close look at why the rate of contents over the Internet is high in these languages and the advantages it will offer you to provide these languages on your website.

English (53.8%)

Over 1.5 billion people can speak English all over the world, and since English is also the language of the Internet world, the rate of contents in this language is quite high. Especially if you would like to attract the foreigners in Turkey to your website, or to go global, having your website translated into English could be a good starting point.

Russian (6.1%)

Russian, the second most popular language over the Internet, is spoken in Russia and Belarus as well as in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. In order to have access to your potential customers and to pop up in the search results related to your products and services in these countries, adding Russian to your website will create a big difference.

German (6.0%)

Germany is one of the countries in West Europe where e-commerce is growing the fastest. 90% of Internet users in this country are buying online. By 2020, it is estimated that 22 million people will buy online through foreign websites. German people consider it important to be given German language choice in global shopping websites.  The percentage of those who state that they may shop from global brands that are not localized is only 56%. (This rate is the lowest among the countries included in the research.)

Spanish (4.9%)

Spanish, spoken by 427 million people, is the second most common language in the world and the fourth most popular in the digital world. While it is so commonly used all over the world, the rate of Spanish content over the Internet is only 4.9%.  Your potential Spanish-speaking customers would be happy to visit your e-commerce site in their own language.

French (4%)

France is the poorest among the European countries in terms of speaking English, so presenting your product or service to this country in French will make them accept your website and understand you better, which will soon increase the turnover rate of your investments.

Japanese (3.5%)

Japan has the lowest success rate in proficiency exams such as TOEFL iBT among Asian countries. Since your potential customers cannot speak English at a sufficient level, they prefer not to shop at websites not offering Japanese language option. On the other hand, almost all trade and shopping in Japan is done online. As a matter of fact, in the surveys done, 48% of Japanese people occupy the top of the list in the global survey rating by stating that “they can buy everything from the Internet.” In addition to providing Japanese option on your website, carrying out digital marketing practices compatible with the language and culture of this country will facilitate your access to Japanese-speaking target audience.

Portuguese (2.9%)

The number of people who speak Portuguese as their native language is higher than the total number of native speakers of French and German. About 60% of Portuguese speakers are Internet users, and 20% of them shop online from different countries. You may consider localizing your website into Portuguese.

Italian (2.4%)

More than 70 million people, particularly in Italy and Switzerland, speak Italian as their official language throughout the world. Italy ranks 5th in the European e-commerce market. 68% of Italians use the Internet and 34% shop online over the Internet. The customer loyalty rate in online shopping in Italy is 50%, which means that in case your potential Italian-speaking customer is satisfied with shopping from you, the probability that s/he will trust you and prefer you again is quite high.

Persian (2.0%)

E-commerce sites that go global have a high chance of success in Iran. If you can give the opportunity to Iranian Internet users who cannot shop at huge e-commerce sites such as Amazon and eBay due to American sanctions that pushes them to shop in their own language, their chances of preferring you will increase significantly. You might consider benefiting from localization service for a website in Persian.

Polish (1.8%)

54% of Internet users in Poland shop online. 16% of these people prefer to shop at global e-commerce sites. The Polish especially choose to buy products unavailable in their country. Therefore, one of the greatest factors that leads your potential customers to buying your products and services is that they understand the details of the different products or services you offer.

The Importance of Website Localization for E-commerce

The countries in which you decide to invest may differ depending on the product or service you present, but no matter what country you enter into the market of, addressing your potential customers in the target countries in their native language on your website will cause them to adopt and trust you and to build an inner bond with your brand.

If you would like to make profits in foreign exchange, you can localize your website in more than 60 languages on our Website Localization page.