With brands big and small alike taking to the internet and establishing a strong presence, the battle to acquire customers is more intense than you can imagine. Long gone are the days when machine translation was an option for new catalogs on an ecommerce site. In order to engage and convert, your fashion ecommerce site needs to offer a great customer experience and serve multiple languages.

Fashion e-retail is moving in a positive direction, with forecasts pointing to the fashion e-commerce sector as one of the most significant B2C market segments. In 2019, the industry attracted around $525.1 billion and is projected to grow to $953.1 billion by the end of 2024.

However, your success as an e-commerce website today depends heavily on export and international markets. And this is where the need for translation and localization comes in to help you take your brand to the global market and connect with overseas audiences for successful brand growth.

Understand the importance of translating ecommerce websites

What are the similarities between Amazon, Nike and IKEA? Sure, all three fall into the online store category, but they all have multilingual websites too! And in case you didn’t know, international expansion would never have been possible without ecommerce website translation and localization!

You need a solid ecommerce platform that supports multiple languages ​​to enable your global audience to reach international markets in our digital age. With every new language you offer in your online shop, you build a bridge between your products and consumers who would not have had access to them without translation.

Every ecommerce website needs to design their platform based on the expectations and fears of their target audience. And since online customers can’t judge the physical attributes or try on the fashion items, there’s a lot more anxiety for you as an ecommerce brand to allay.

When you employ multilingual website translation, you tailor your website to the cultural and linguistic needs and requirements of each audience you serve. And that creates trust between your customers and your brand.

What are the best practices for translating fashion eCommerce websites?

If you’re not sure what to focus on, here’s a quick guide to the top factors to consider when translating your online store into a foreign language.

1. Select some of the most widely spoken languages ​​to get started

Let’s say you originally designed and published your ecommerce store in English. Great. Your content is live on the web in one of the most spoken languages ​​in the world. But not everyone who indulges in online shopping speaks English, so you’ll need to address multiple languages. Chinese is rising as a superpower language, so it would be wise to consider it. Spanish is also widely spoken. And then there’s Hindi and Arabic, both spoken by millions of native speakers in many parts of the world.

Of course, you can add more languages ​​to expand your brand’s reach and appeal to a broader audience. But the five we’ve mentioned here are great starting points for any fashion ecommerce business to start with.

2. Work on search engine optimization in all your target languages

The type of keywords you target can vary from one region to another and between languages, which is why it’s important to focus on SEO optimization for all the languages ​​you’re targeting, not just your base language .

The new demographics you’re targeting have different buying habits. Their cultural perspectives also influence their decision-making, so it’s always a good idea to use more than one analysis tool to make sure you’re covering all your bases.

3. Provide multilingual customer service to your customers

Translating your ecommerce store’s landing pages, menus, and product descriptions is vital. But also adequate customer care. In fact, according to HubSpot, 60% of consumers will disconnect from a brand after a negative customer service experience. Conversely, happy customers return for repeat purchases 50% of the time!

In the eyes of your customers, it is important to be able to contact support in their native language. And they also need to be supported in their mother tongue. Ecommerce stores can provide multilingual support for practical reasons either by employing multilingual support staff or by automating some processes with multilingual chatbots. In fact, many consumers prefer to find answers to their questions without making a formal request, so an FAQ or community support section could do wonders in this case.

4. Prepare a plan for multilingual reviews

Machine translation just doesn’t cut it when it comes to any type of website translation, including ecommerce websites. Why? Because translation errors are far too common in machine translation projects and every computer-assisted translation needs to be validated and backed up by human translation before it can be accessed by the public.

However, machine translation (MT) can be helpful if you focus on scope and speed. So machine translation coupled with human translation post-editing is the perfect combination that delivers the best of both worlds in terms of the end result.

5. Work with experts in the field

It is crucial to work with professional translators and localization experts to translate your ecommerce website. Yes, you are guaranteed a professional result as they have a deep understanding of the local language. However, professionals also know that eCommerce localization and translation is a multidimensional project.

You are not limited to translating your content into multiple languages. They will also roll out ecommerce localization to ensure it’s culturally appropriate. Professional translation agencies also pay close attention to desktop publishing, making adjustments where necessary to accommodate a variety of text sizes and visual placement. AND they take care of your international SEO so you keep showing up on search engine results pages!

6. Build international communities

When you set up your ecommerce fashion website, your focus was on establishing a reputable brand backed by a local community. But when you go global with your brand, you need to do more than just gain followers. You need to connect with your audience on a deeper, more personal level. And that’s where strategic localization comes in to ensure you’re meeting the preferences of each locale with your targeted marketing campaigns.

According to this bachelor’s degree in fashion design, this field aspires to combine a sense of the classics with the extremes of experimentation to meet current consumer demand on a global scale. With this in mind, any marketing campaign should be tailored to the local cultures, native language and buying behavior of local internet users. And the only way to get it right the first time is with professional localization, including content translation, language testing, and state-of-the-art digital marketing campaigns for each and every market segment.

7. Don’t forget to optimize your multilingual platform for social networks and mobile devices

Gone are the days when people were confined to their desktop when using the internet. Instead, most consumers shop online when they’re on the go, which again shows the importance of not only translating and localizing your content, but also making sure this multilingual rock star is accessible on mobile devices and works with social media !

Keep in mind that while Facebook (or rather Meta) and Twitter are important players, they are not the be-all and end-all. Take China as an example, it’s a whole different ball game. They don’t even use Facebook in China. Instead, Weibo and WeChat are at the forefront of Chinese social networks. And if you want to be successful, you need to build a strong presence on these platforms with localized content that speaks to the heart of the audience.

8. Pay attention to software localization and technical details

There’s a lot more to bringing your brand onto the global stage than translating content. Aspects such as font size, website design and layout can negatively impact your reputation when entering a new market without first localizing these aspects.

The small technical details become essential when targeting market segments like Russia and China that use different characters, font sizes and reading directions. And the last thing you want to do is scare off a potential customer by using the wrong font size or style.

Whether your fashion brand is changing course or focusing on a new market segment, the best way to reach your audience is through website translation and ecommerce localization. When you not only translate but also localize your ecommerce store, you address your customers in a language they understand, which means they are much more receptive to the message you are trying to convey to them!

With the right strategy in mind, you create emotionally engaging content, promote brand identity, and strengthen your connection with your customers. Armed with the right practices and impeccable translation services, translating your online store could easily be the best thing you will ever do for your business.

AUTHOR BIO: Milos is an experienced digital marketing and communications strategist based in Bergamo, Italy. He is experienced in search engine optimization, content development and promotion, translation and localization. He is fluent in English, Italian and the languages ​​of the Western Balkans. Connect with him on LinkedIn.