The beauty of ecommerce is that you can sell to global customers, regardless of how close they are to your headquarters. Drive them to your online store, take their payment, and ship their order. Recoup profits and repeat the process.
If only it was that simple.
International shoppers often fall at the first hurdle. They visit a generic website using a .com domain, where prices are shown in US dollars and website copy is written in English. It’s not personalized to them.
And because most people prefer to shop in their own language using their own currency, international shoppers exit in search of a brand that allows them to do so.
Localizing your ecommerce website prevents that from happening on your online store. You’ll automatically personalize the currency, domain, product pricing, and imagery shown on your ecommerce site, depending on the location of each visitor.
This guide shares how to do it.
What is ecommerce localization?
Ecommerce localization is the process of taking an online store’s existing content and personalizing it for a different market.
A US-based direct-to-consumer brand expanding into Mexico would need to build a localized version of their website—with Spanish website copy and images of Mexican consumers, and accepting popular payment methods of shoppers in that region.
Petal & Pup is an Australian fashion retailer that found customers in New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada. They localized their ecommerce store, personalizing website content to speak directly to customers in each region. International sales now represent 20% of total revenue for the Aussie fashion brand.
What are the benefits of ecommerce localization?
Instead of having a one-size-fits-all store, localizing your ecommerce website offers the following benefits to online retailers:
- Increase market share and competitive advantage: Take your competitors’ customers and gain market share—a strategy that pays dividends over time. The more people who know about your products, the less it costs to acquire new customers. Word of mouth takes over.
- Tap into the global market: Take a slice of the $8 trillion online shoppers are expected to spend annually by 2028 with a localized ecommerce website.
- Build an international search presence: Search engines like Google have one goal: to showcase the best results for a user’s query. Language, currency, and content relevancy all play a role in that—each of which is personalized on a localized website.
- Fewer cart abandonments: Most people abandon online shopping carts because extra costs are too high or they can’t see the total order cost upfront. Dynamic pricing is part of a localization strategy: customers see the price they’ll pay in their own currency upfront, reducing the chances of them abandoning an online purchase at the checkout.
- Faster delivery for customers: Modern consumers expect free, fast delivery from brands. An important part of the localization process involves regionalizing inventory, so products go from your warehouse to a customer’s address in as little time possible—even if that’s thousands of miles away from your HQ.
- Easier personalization: Personalized ecommerce websites see 10% to 15% higher conversion rates and 20% higher customer satisfaction rates. That’s easier to achieve when you’re personalizing website content based on a potential customer’s location.
- Improve conversion rate: “Ecommerce localization has increased our engagement and website traffic significantly, which in turn has increased our profits,” says George Pitchkhadze, CMO at Keyzar Jewelry. “I also find that we have a much wider reach within our targeted market/customer base.”
How to create an ecommerce localization strategy
1. Start with market research
Time and effort go into localizing your ecommerce store for a new market. Make sure it’s worth your time by validating that the new region will be a profitable revenue stream for your business.
You can do this through:
- Website analytics: Use Google Analytics segments to break down onsite activity by region or location. If you discover that shoppers in Mexico convert 45% better than shoppers in Brazil, it makes sense to prioritize localization for Mexico. It’s the path of least resistance to expansion.
- Customer feedback: Ask sales teams to make a note of where customers are inquiring about shipping. A large volume of potential customers asking whether you ship to Italy is a sign you should add the country to your localization list.
- Marketplace selling: Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay are often seen as the archnemeses of DTC brands. However, they already have global customer bases with existing supply chain logistics that help merchants sell internationally. Test the waters by selling on one, and monitor which country has the biggest appetite for your products.
Some of the world’s most powerful brands failed at international expansion due to their lack of research. Starbucks, for example, launched 90 new stores in Australia, only to discover they didn’t sell the type of coffee Australians were accustomed to.
The failed international expansion cost Starbucks $105 million—a loss that could’ve been avoided with comprehensive prelocalization research.
2. Choose the right domain structure
The .com version of a website is the default domain extension for global businesses. It’s used by more than 38% of all domains. But some international shoppers place more trust in ecommerce brands with a top-level domain that’s specifically for their country.
Show you operate in different countries with domain structures specific to each region, such as:
- Subfolders (brand.com/es-mx)
- Subdomains (mx.brand.com)
- Country-code top level domains (brand.com.mx)
Fashion retailer High Fidelity considered this when planning their launch strategy for the US. Marketing manager Anthony Atkins says that going with the .us country-code top level domain (ccTLD) “has helped improve conversion. It has given visitors a boost of confidence, since they recognize the address to be local and feel it's easier to complete a transaction in their local region, language and currency.”
Redirect international shoppers to their localized ecommerce store with the Geolocation app. Allbirds, for example, uses my UK-based IP address to display this notification when I land on their .com website. The popup redirects me to the localized UK version at allbirds.co.uk.
3. Localize currencies and payment methods
People want to pay in the local currency that’s most familiar to them.
Josh Palmer experienced this first-hand with Language Posters, a DTC brand that sells framed posters in eight different languages. The store sells a high volume of orders to customers outside the US—Josh estimates their products have been shipped to over 50 countries worldwide.
Josh relied on his web development skills and Shopify: “Specifically, I added a currency selector to the header of the site, which redirects users when changed to ?currency=USD (for example), and then added some Javascript to detect the user's country and automatically select the appropriate currency.
“Of course, they still have the option to manually change it,” Josh says. “But at this point, probably at least half of my transactions are foreign currency transactions.”
It’s not just currencies that change cross-border. Payment preferences also vary by country.
Digital payment systems (such as Shop Pay and Apple Pay) reign supreme in China and Western Europe. Customers in India and Eastern Europe, however, prefer cash on delivery. In the Netherlands, almost 7 in 10 of transactions are made using a domestic payment method called iDEAL.
💡 Tip: Offer localized currencies and payment options for your ecommerce business with Managed Markets. Automatically convert storefront prices to more than 130 international currencies based on the latest foreign exchange rates. Neither you nor your customers miss out on ecommerce transactions due to currency conversion uncertainty.
4. Adjust product pricing per market
There are costs associated with selling internationally. From import duties to cross-border shipping, localize the pricing for each region to maintain profit margins. The last thing you want to do is invest time in international growth, only to make less profit than you do in your existing region.
Similarly, check whether resellers have agreements that restrict retail prices in foreign markets. For instance, suppliers based in Europe might limit the discount their partners can provide when expanding into the same market. Check whether you’re bound by any of these restrictions in your reseller or supplier agreements.
Moonglow shows different prices across each localized version of its site. This coincides with the shopper’s home currency—alleviating two pre-purchase sales objections while maintaining profit margins.
If you know that orders in Brazil cost more to ship than US domestic orders, absorb that dent to profit margins with custom product prices for that market.
5. Translate language and localize content
People can’t purchase from websites they don’t understand. Even if online shoppers are somewhat fluent in your main language, mental translation is an off-putting hoop you’re forcing them through prior to purchasing from your online store.
Paul Valentine, for example, shows this overlay to shoppers with a German IP visiting their .com domain:
International shoppers are diverted to the localized version of their website, where the content reloads in German:
International expansion is very important for European brands—however, it also comes with a lot of challenges. We know that headless is the right solution for Paul Valentine to accelerate and grow the brand, increase localization, and continue to expand internationally.”—Paul Franzreb, Cofounder and CEO, Paul Valentine
An important clarification: Localizing the language doesn’t mean translating it word for word. Sentence structure, syntax, and grammar change from language to language. While English speakers say “red shoes,” Spanish speakers say the directly translated equivalent of “shoes red.”
6. Set up local customer support
When localizing, source reviews from customers in each new market you’re expanding to. Unlike translations from your native language to another, localized reviews replicate the natural voice, dialect, and language of customers in that region.
The number of product reviews published by your customers in their local language can also help to boost the amount of confidence that purchasers have in your site’s products.”—Dan Lee, Head of Marketing, Sealions
No matter how hard you try, customers still need support both before and after purchasing items online. Make that easily accessible with localized customer support—a tactic able to drive long-term profitability when expanding into international markets.
“You may think of your products as self-explanatory; however, it may not be so for a person whose primary language is not the same as yours, which is why we made our customer service apparatus multilingual for localization,” says Yupi Alpert, founder and CEO of Noémie. “We understood that the various markets we touch upon have different needs that go beyond just certain item preferences or purchasing methods.”
Customer support tools like Zendesk and Gorgias offer multilingual support. Use those automation tools to scale and automate localized customer service, so you can spend more time reaching new customers.
7. Optimize logistics and inventory distribution
Nobody likes unexpected bills. Prevent forcing them on unknowing international shoppers by showing clear information on all extra costs associated with their cross-border shipments, such as:
- Shipping fees
- Duty, import, and export taxes
- Tax obligations (for example, European consumers are subject to value-added tax (VAT) on items they purchase through your online store.)
Failing to disclose these extra costs upfront causes almost half of online shoppers to exit their online cart. It’s the biggest turn-off customers contend with when purchasing items from international shoppers, even through localized sites.
Fix this problem by absorbing extra costs into your product pricing. If you know that the total landed cost for a $60-RRP product is $50, bump up the retail price to reclaim profits and avoid bombarding cross-border shoppers with extra costs at the checkout.
It’s a price-bundling tactic often used in ecommerce shipping: customers would rather spend more than pay for shipping.
Distribute your inventory among warehouses closest to your customers, or work with a third-party logistics (3PL) company with international warehouses.
Doe Lashes, a DTC brand that has grown from a $500 launch to a multimillion-dollar business, took this approach when localizing in new regions. Their CEO and founder, Jason Wong, says, “We look at where our customers are placing their orders from. The way we respond is to place our inventory near those cities to reduce the overall miles traveled by those packages.
“We’re now stocking inventory outside of the country for our international customers, just to reach them faster. We have a warehouse in China and that helps us reach Australia and the whole Southeast Asia region.”
8. Automate localized experiences
It’s all well and good to have a localized version of your online store—but if international customers don’t know it exists, shoppers who would otherwise be willing to purchase a product will be put off by unfamiliar languages or currencies.
Shopify’s Geolocation app takes care of guiding customers to the correct user experience based on their IP address, location, and browser preferences. It’s used by sites like Fashion Nova to divert international shoppers visiting its .com domain toward a localized subdomain.
9. Test the process
“Once you’ve localized your website, it’s important to test it to make sure everything is working properly,” says Austin Dowsy, CEO of Aimvein. “This includes checking for broken links, misspellings, and incorrect translations.”
For even more rigorous testing, have someone in the new region place a test order on the localized version of your site. Fix any errors that weaken the customer experience, such as incorrectly translated email order confirmations, or missing payment methods preferred by shoppers in the local market. You’ll fix obvious errors before unforgiving customers are driven off by them.
Finally, run A/B tests to find the best-converting elements on your localized sites using tools like Shogun, Dexter, and ShipScout. Best practices that convince English shoppers to convert might not be the same for German speakers.
Ecommerce localization best practices
Be consistent with branding across localized sites
Localized versions of your website should make it obvious that it’s owned and operated by your brand.
People trust brands that are familiar to them, so making major changes to your logo, brand colors, or messaging can be confusing to international shoppers. You never want them to ask, “Does this website really belong to the brand I trust? Or is it a scam by a replica company looking to take my money and run?”
Consult your brand style and ensure your logo, brand messaging, and personality is obvious across all subdomains. The English and French versions of Huel’s site, for example, make it clear that both websites belong to the brand. Customers who love the simplistic branding see the same elements across each localized site.
Do keyword research to find local search terms
Regardless of where you’re expanding to, your target audience are using search engines to discover new products. Google is the first choice for US and UK consumers, whereas Baidu is the preferred search engine for Chinese shoppers.
Shopify Markets handles the SEO infrastructure needed to meet shoppers in each region you’re targeting. Chinese shoppers will see brand.cn in search results through their preferred search engine, whereas US shoppers see the .com version of the same page.
One thing to note is that keyword search terms differ by country. European shoppers search for “trainers”; American counterparts search for “sneakers.” Edit the page content, meta tags, and image alt text to include these regional terms.
Consider cultural differences
People in each country have cultural differences that impact shopping habits and experiences. For instance:
- Sizing: A women’s UK size 6 shoe is size 8 in the US.
- Languages: The Arabic language is read right to left, unlike English, which is read left to right.
- Colors: Purple symbolizes wealth in the Middle East, but is associated with mourning in Latin America.
- Addresses: Streets in Japan don’t have names, unlike most Western countries.
Cultural differences can be vast—and many of them aren’t obvious to people who don’t live in the region. Take Simba, for example, who realized that unlike most of the Western world, people in Germany sleep on single beds pushed together. The brand updated product imagery on their localized ecommerce store to reflect this.
Uncover these cultural differences by researching your target market. The more data you have about your potential customers and their daily habits, the better you can personalize the localized version of your site.
Use an international holiday calendar
As you expand, consider other festivities that customers in your target market celebrate—those with the power to influence sales. An international marketing calendar with key dates best positions your localized store to take advantage of these orders.
“You can take advantage of the local holiday revenue streams like Singles Day in China, Diwali in India, Ramadan in the Middle East, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and more.” says Jack Klauber, founder and CEO of Everyday Dose.
Let’s put that into practice and say you’re a US company with a localized website for Italian shoppers. Add the following dates to your calendar and run social media marketing campaigns around each to capitalize on the festivities:
- Epiphany Day: January 6
- Liberation Day: April 25
- Ferragosto: August 15
- All Saints’ Day: November 1
How to localize your ecommerce website with Shopify
Take the headache out of international commerce with Managed Markets, a cross-border management tool that helps you localize your ecommerce store from a single dashboard.
You can:
- Showcase product prices in more than 130 global currencies
- Manage subdomains and subfolders without cannibalizing search presence
- Translate your website using third-party translation apps
- Accept alternative payment methods that are popular in your target countries
- Collect duty and import taxes at checkout
“We got an invitation to try Shopify Markets from Shopify and jumped at the chance,” says Ewa Sandhu, managing director at Catwalk Wholesale. Since using Managed Markets’ suite of localization tools to personalize shopping experiences for international shoppers, the brand “doubled sessions which in turn helped improve our conversion rate,” says Ewa.
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Ecommerce localization FAQ
What is ecommerce localization?
Ecommerce localization is the process of translating an online store into a new language and culture. It ensures a store caters to the customers in a specific region.
What is a localization example?
An example of localization in ecommerce is when a store built in English for Americans is localized in French for customers living in France. To localize, the store researches how French customers refer to specific products and services to better match their expectations and language preferences.
Why should an ecommerce store consider localization?
Ecommerce stores should consider localizing their sites for several reasons. Localization helps merchants grow into new markets, create personalized experiences, and reduce customer support issues by making content clearer and more relevant for local audiences.
