5 Essential Components for Attracting International Customers
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Video Link: http://bit.ly/1GfpHA3 With 89% of online customers transacting outside of the U.S., it's critical to have a cart that supports multiple languages, currencies and payment methods. This presentation explains the 5 essential components for attracting more international customers.
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5 Essential Components for Attracting International Customers
- 1. 5 ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS FOR ATTRACTING INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS
- 2. Growing Demand Global ecommerce is on the rise and adopting a localized checkout process is important to capitalizing on this growth
- 3. What You’ll Learn In this webinar, you’ll learn: How you can localize your cart to enable online customers to purchase your products and services using their local languages, currencies and payment methods. CURRENCY DESIGNLANGUAGE MOBILE PAYMENT METHODS
- 4. Defining Localization Localization: The process of adapting your checkout process to different markets so that it appears native to the user in every way.
- 5. Benefits of Localization Reach more customers Increase conversions Make more money Achieve better ROI
- 9. Achieve A Better ROI
- 10. 5 Key Elements CURRENCY DESIGNLANGUAGE MOBILE PAYMENT METHODS
- 11. Currency 13% of online shoppers abandon a cart because the price is in a foreign currency.
- 12. Currency Present your product in the currency most commonly used by your customer – Euros for shoppers from EU nations, Pound Sterling for shoppers in the UK, etc.
- 13. Language Instantly display content in a shopper’s native language to provide a more natural experience and eliminate the distraction of translation tools.
- 14. Select a template that incorporates your brand’s color scheme and logo but can still be adjusted to suit the preferences of international customers. Design
- 15. Form fields need to be able to expand and contract – text in some languages can grow in length by 150% after being translated. Design
- 16. Know the preferred reading style of your customers and adjust content accordingly. Design
- 17. Design Colors and pictures are interpreted differently across the world. Green is a popular color for call-to-action elements in North America but in Asia, red or gold often performs better.
- 18. Mobile Mobile is growing – Chinese mobile commerce was expected to reach $50 billion by the end of 2014.
- 19. Mobile View your cart pages on a mobile device to identify whether text is legible and buttons can be tapped. Forcing a mobile user to pinch and swipe to find your products will quickly cause frustration.
- 20. Payment Methods 67% of online shoppers leave a purchase because a site doesn’t support their local payment methods.
- 21. Payment Methods Research the purchasing habits of customers living in countries you’d like to target and offer the payment methods they prefer most. Brazilians prefer Boleto Bancario Japanese prefer Konbini Germans prefer Bank Transfers Chinese prefer COD Purchases
- 22. Implementing Localization Begin by researching the preferences of your international customers and localize your cart once you understand them. CURRENCY DESIGNLANGUAGE MOBILE PAYMENT METHODS
- 23. Implementing Localization Global ecommerce companies are experts in localization and can help you optimize your cart to convert more international shoppers.
- 24. Thank You For more information, see our four-part localization blog series at www.revenuewire.com/blog If you have questions about this webinar or implementing localization, contact us at merchants@revenuewire.com
Editor's Notes
- Hello, and welcome to today’s webinar where I’ll be discussing five aspects of the checkout process that digital merchants can optimize in order to reach more customers worldwide.
- There’s no doubt that ecommerce is on the rise. In fact, the global ecommerce space topped one trillion dollars in twenty-twelve, one-point-three trillion dollars in twenty-thirteen and was forecast to hit one-point-five trillion dollars by the end of twenty-fourteen. Adopting a localized checkout process is important to capitalizing on this growth. While North America and Western Europe continue to drive the ecommerce space, it’s emerging markets such as the Asia-Pacific region and Brazil that are contributing the most new dollars.
- In this webinar, you’ll learn how you can localize your cart to enable online customers in these markets to purchase your products and services using their local languages, currencies and payment methods. I’ll begin by briefly touching on what cart localization means for today’s digital merchants. Then, I’ll explain the series of benefits digital merchants have come to experience after adopting a localized cart. And finally, I’ll explain which five elements of your cart can be localized right away to provide an optimal shopping experience for your customers.
- Okay, let’s quickly define cart localization. By definition, cart localization is the process of adapting your checkout process to different markets so that it appears native to the user in every way. This includes elements like currency, language, design, numbers and dates. The ultimate goal here is being able to reduce purchase anxiety and cart abandonment rates. The localization of online carts has a huge effect on conversions for online transactions because customers want the simplest, most hassle-free experience when purchasing something online, no matter their native language or where they live. If customers don’t have that experience, they’ll be much more likely to abandon their purchase.
- A localized checkout process has a number of benefits including the ability to reach more customers, increase conversions, make more money and achieve a better ROI.
- Providing a localized experience to shoppers around the world will allow you to reach more customers. In fact, fifty-five percent of consumers buy only from websites where information is presented in their native language. As you begin to support more languages, you’ll have a greater opportunity to attract the growing number of customers who are demanding a localized experience.
- Localized carts will also lift your conversions. The anxiety and friction shoppers experience is drastically reduced when a cart page is optimized for a customer’s country. This will translate to a reduction in cart abandonment and can increase international conversion rates by seventeen percent.
- With greater customer reach and increased conversions, your business is going to drive more revenue. In fact, sixty-five percent of multinational enterprises believe localization is either important or very important for achieving higher company revenues.
- And what makes localization particularly attractive for digital merchants is its return on investment. Studies have shown that for every dollar invested in localization, up to twenty-five dollars can be returned. Each business that adopts a localized cart will of course see a different return on their investment but the chances of success are greatly improved when working with a knowledgeable ecommerce partner.
- Localizing your checkout process doesn’t have to be a major undertaking. To get started, it easiest to focus on currencies, languages, design, mobile optimization and payment methods. By implementing these five cart elements, you’ll provide an optimized experience for your global customers. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
- When it comes to currency, thirteen percent of online shoppers leave a cart without paying simply because the price is in a foreign currency. Imagine an American customer wanting to buy software from an online merchant in India whose cart shows the purchase total in Rupees. How can anyone expect the American shopper to be confident they’re getting the product at a reasonable price? Customers around the globe feel that same hesitation when shopping online and seeing their cart total presented in an unfamiliar currency.
- Presenting prices and checkout totals in local currencies assures international customers that foreign exchange rates won’t alter the final cost. Local currency also increases the customer’s sense of trust in your company and they will be much more likely to complete their purchase.
- As mentioned earlier, over half of customers buy only from websites that present information in their native language. So it’s important that your site is offered in multiple languages. And this doesn’t have to be a huge project, ninety percent of online shoppers speak one of the thirteen languages shown here. So if you focus on several of these you will reach a large portion of your market. Also, displaying all text in the shopper’s native language lets them navigate the checkout process without having to deal with third-party translation tools that might frustrate them to the point of abandoning their purchase.
- With design, the look and feel of a site plays an important role in converting customers. To make your cart feel native and culturally adapted, choose a website template that maintains corporate consistency through the use of brand colors and logos, while still allowing for the flexibility to localize.
- In addition, choose a template that allows form fields to adapt to different language lengths. Fields should expand or contract depending on the language being used because text in languages like English can expand one-hundred-and-fifty percent or more when translated into some European languages, such as German.
- The way in which a customer reads or scans your checkout page for information should also be taken into consideration. In North America, it’s natural for site visitors to scan pages in an F-shape pattern, reading text from left to right and focusing heavily on the left side of the page. However, shoppers from Arabic countries will read from right to left, and may be deterred by page designs that don’t accommodate their approach. Overcoming this can be as simple as installing a horizontal navigation bar instead of vertical, and choosing a symmetrical design to help prevent confusion.
- But supporting different languages and providing easy navigation aren’t the only factors you should consider when implementing a localized cart. Colors, pictures and other design aspects are all important to the user and can be interpreted differently by different cultures. Take the color green for example. While it may be a popular color for call-to-action elements in North America, red or gold is often used in Asia for calls-to-action. Images and pictures are also influencers in making the customer more comfortable when purchasing. The involvement of a human element tends to evoke a stronger reaction from people across the world, so having pictures of people who relate to your target audience work well.
- Let’s take a look at mobile. There’s no doubt that mobile purchases are increasing rapidly, with many customers researching and buying on mobile devices. For example, in China mobile commerce was expected to reach fifty billion dollars by the end of twenty-fourteen. That’s double the value it had in twenty-thirteen. To meet this demand, digital merchants should have detailed, mobile-friendly product pages that effectively convey the value of their product or service to a mobile user.
- The most important factor to consider is the reduced size of a page’s text and buttons on a mobile device. If a shopper has to pinch and swipe multiple times to find a button or read a product description, frustration will mount quickly and they’ll soon ask themselves if the trouble is worth their money and time.
- Moving onto payment methods – as I mentioned, people feel more comfortable engaging in online transactions in their own currency, so it’s not surprising that sixty-seven percent of online shoppers abandon carts because a site doesn't support their local payment methods. Providing customers with a range of their country’s most widely used payment choices inspires trust that their purchase will be handled securely.
- For example, Brazilians tend to favor Boleto Bancario. The Japanese have made Konbini extremely popular. The Chinese like to make cash-on-delivery purchases, and Germans, who tend to be concerned about privacy issues, prefer bank transfers over credit cards. And then there’s PayPal. Although a popular payment method, PayPal isn’t available everywhere – so avoid making it the only payment option for your customers. In any case, conduct research on how your customers prefer to pay in the countries you’d like to sell in and offer those that you know are most popular.
- Implementing a localized cart starts with understanding the currencies, languages, designs, mobile pages and payment methods preferred by shoppers in countries you’d like to target. Once you understand your audience, then you’ll be able to update your cart using the five elements I’ve outlined.
- That being said, an easy way to get started is to work with a global ecommerce company. These companies specialize in global online payments. They have carts that offer multiple languages, currencies and payment methods and they also provide expert advice to help you optimize your customer’s experience wherever they are in the world.
- That brings us to the end of the webinar. If you’d like more information on the localization strategies discussed, take a look at our four- part blog series on cart localization at RevenueWire dot com slash blog. If you have any questions about this webinar or how you can implement localization functionality to your cart, contact us at merchants at RevenueWire dot com. Thank you for watching!