The State of Ecommerce Localization Report
Practicology & TOPPAN Digital Language release research identifying localization opportunities for global online retailers.
“The retail industry is still in the early stages of defining strategies for international localization.”
Cross-border eCommerce has always been a major challenge for brands and retailers. This report shows that while global retailers have invested heavily in localization and have largely succeeded in presenting users with content in their own language, there are still many opportunities available to increase visibility and improve the customer experience in some of the major eCommerce markets around the world.
The report analyzes the approaches to localization for 51 US retail websites in Australia, Japan, Mexico and for 42 UK retailers for Australia, France, Germany and the USA to see how the approaches differ between the different countries, cultures and languages. The report assesses UK and US retailers’ localization efforts in a number of areas including: use of language across the site, merchandising and offers, mobile optimization, search engine optimization, social media, customer services, delivery and returns, pricing and payment.
Practicology Head of Internationalization Nicola Huet said of the report findings:
“We can see both UK and US retailers have invested in localising their international websites in the last few years as a way of driving cross-border online sales growth. However, we feel that there are clear opportunities to localize further, and provide a truly localized customer experience for their international customers in key markets.”
