One of the most important components of an online business is investing effectively in growth. With the generally costly expansion to a foreign market, digital marketing is a fundamental part of any budget. However, it does not automatically guarantee e-shop growth.
Where the impact of performance marketing ends
Marketplaces and Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Shein and Temu are successful competitors to the low prices found through a simple Google search. From the perspective of smaller e-shops, it is therefore essential to improve overall customer satisfaction. Gaining the loyalty of local customers can be done through localized customer service such as:
- detailed and clearly translated product descriptions including quality product pictures or videos,
- simple way of returning goods in the event of a warranty claim or dissatisfaction,
- possibility of direct communication with the e-shop in your native language,
- reliable and trustworthy business partners in the local market,
- available references from local customers,
- collection of both positive and negative feedback for further improvement of services.
After capturing the attention of potential customers through online campaigns, it is time to build long-term trust as a local player. Discover further growth potential for your e-shop on European markets through the localization checker.
Localized customer journey
- Was the number of orders after entering a new market higher in your expectations than in reality?
- Are you a small or a medium-sized business that wants to gradually secure a place among the market leaders?
- How do you plan an expansion while making sure you get the fastest return of the initial investment and operating costs?
- Can you increase the success rate of local campaign investments?
- How to support the fastest growth and identify potential local customers?
- What new responsibilities should your internal team be prepared for and how to effectively utilize the existing infrastructure of local partners?
All of these and related questions can be answered by unique e-shop localization checker by Expandeco. Since its recent launch, this tool has helped dozens of e-shops to analyze their localization from the practical point of view or prepare them for expansion abroad.
Localization ≠ translation
It is not enough to translate product descriptions and elements of your e-shop and turn on performance campaigns to ensure profitable expansion. Localization is supposed to adapt translations and functionality of your e-shop to the established standards on the market. This process improves translations not only in linguistic (grammatical) terms, but also from the point of view of local customers.
The best-established e-shops operating in multiple markets build their long-term competitiveness through localization of:
- product offers, including descriptions of the best-selling products,
- communication, including marketing materials tailored to the market,
- related customer services both before and during the purchase,
- verified local suppliers (the most used payment methods, the best-known shipping companies or experienced agencies depending on the business segment)
- aftercare processes in the form of reverse logistics or automated recommendations for next purchases of relevant goods.
Impact of localization strategy on success abroad
E-shops trying to establish themselves in a new market usually discover the solution to their localization problems only as one of their last options. The “better” case is when it comes after repeated negative customer experiences. A common reason for negative reviews or contacting customer support is incorrect information in the local language. Some of the worse cases include low traffic to the foreign domain and poor conversion rate in the shopping cart, meaning a long-lasting low order ratio despite the higher investment in online marketing.
Reviews of localization for different e-shops by Expandeco team show “non-essential seeming” cases which, however, directly impact the conversion rate. It usually concerns machine-translated phrases that foreign customers perceive as unnatural or even unacceptable. Potential customers quickly discover the e-shop’s foreign origin through the inapt translation.
We also encountered e-shops where the payment gateway simply did not work and because of the language barrier, it was unable to accept orders. Their local colleague was able to quickly solve the problem.
Localization package by Expandeco includes a list of recommendations tailored to your e-shop’s needs:
- a calendar of local events and bank holidays for easier campaign planning,
- checklists of various e-commerce areas (localization, logistics, customer service, margins, markets, brand),
- e-books or webinar recordings (Romania, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia…),
- follow-up conversation with experienced team from Expandeco in person, including an explanation of documents and time for further questions,
- and above all, a report with specific shortcomings of the audited e-shop, both on desktop and mobile device.
In just a few hours you will be able to improve your business abroad. Screenshots and detailed reports based on local market experience are also part of the localization strategy.
How to save time and costs
Technological tools available to us now are already a common part of online business expansion. The trend of copywriting through artificial intelligence and machine translation are the most effective solutions in terms of time and cost-effectivity. E-shop owners utilize so-called “machine translation” especially if there is a large number of product pages. Translation by professional translators remains standard for the most important parts of the website, such as the homepage, GTC, bestseller items and special seasonal offers (local marketing).
Machine translations are a common part of the e-shop growth, especially in the initial phase of expansion. They can help save hundreds, or maybe thousands, of euros. They are particularly efficient if the e-shop is only testing the market potential.
That is where Expandeco’s advanced tool comes in to provide specific tips for quick improvements of the e-shop from the perspective of a local customer.
You will get an e-shop fine-tuned to the last detail for any of the European markets, just like in your native language.
You won’t miss any market specifics, such as delivery to local parcel box or returning goods to a local address. This will significantly increase your ability to effectively fight your local competitors.
Understanding the reasons for returns is key when optimizing e-commerce for a local market. Among the most common reasons for returns, especially in the fashion industry, is ordering multiple outfit sizes or receiving damaged goods. Another reason that comes up frequently is the overall dissatisfaction of local customers caused by the difference between the product description on the e-shop website and what was actually delivered. This is exactly what correct localization can prevent.
So, what now?
Expandeco is improving the quality of machine translations thanks to their infrastructure and their team of more than 70 local colleagues across Europe:
- Machine translation proofreading by a professional translator (native speaker) who lives in the country. It is also done in cooperation with customer service operators from Expandeco who have a wide range of knowledge about e-commerce and from various segments (from fashion, through hobby to cosmetics).
- Independent control of the entire shopping process including shopping cart functionality and test orders, confirmation auto-reply e-mails, even handling of the returns.
- Overview of what services are offered by the local competitors, including mystery shopping. We will check the selection of local suppliers such as shipping companies, payment gateway providers, or marketing agencies.
“We are the first to offer an e-shop localization check tool to that extent. It is a direct part of our translation department. I am also happy to advise you on specific localization options for your e-shop.” – Andrea Stanko, Head of Localization at Expandeco
“I strongly recommend native speaker translations from Expandeco. After going through several translation agencies, only Expandeco offered us a manual translation that is faithful to the original while tailored to the local market, which enabled us to launch smoothly in one of the foreign markets and even get an immediate return on investment. Manual translation costs more than machine translation to start with, but in the long run, machine translation would certainly not give such spectacular results.” – Piotr Makówka, E-commerce Specialist at Welsti
