This infographic addresses the topic of localization, first defining localization challenges for ecommerce and then outlining the benefits of meeting those challenges. Localizing your site, including product pages, checkout processes and shopping carts, is absolutely necessary if you want to convert visitors from around the world. You can’t expect visitors from Japan to buy your product if they can’t read the words on your checkout process.
Why You Need to Localize
I was glad to see that Transifex, the company that created this infographic, understand that localization is not just as an issue of translating texts, but as one of ensuring that every visitor is able to transact in a familiar manner. Texts, currencies, payment methods – even the order of information fields, all differ depending on where your customer is located and all require localization.
Two of the more noteworthy statistics offered by this infographic should really start driving your localization efforts if you haven’t thought about it before: 89 percent of Internet users are outside of the US and over half of “consumers say that the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price.” Even if you’re already investing resources into localizing your ecommerce, you have to continue monitoring your regional traffic and conversion rates, researching new payment methods, and testing different layouts for conversion rate optimization.
