How does the English language give British e-tailers a huge advantage when expanding internationally?

18 June, 2021

E-Commerce

Selling internationally online is a daunting prospect but for UK based e-tailers there’s one weapon at your disposal that is second nature to you, and you use it every day without thinking, the English language.

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As a British e-tailer expanding overseas, while you must make sure you localise your online shop for currency, payment options, taxes, and familiar delivery and returns processes, one thing you can set aside for now is language.

Obviously, there is already a massive customer base in countries where English is the first language. These countries are known as the Anglosphere and as well as the UK, include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States at its core. But it also includes the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth Caribbean countries too.

It’s estimated that there are over 500 million people living in the core anglosphere. Suddenly it’s easy to feel that translating your website can wait.

Of course, being able to translate your website into a shopper’s native tongue is always going to be a great way of localising your online shop. It makes them feel at home and more likely to buy from you. But getting the language right isn’t always easy and there is a lot to consider.

Firstly, you need to be sure you’re translating it into the right language. Not every country has just one official language. There are 41 countries listed with two official languages and 12 with three. South Africa even has 11 official languages.

Secondly, if you do decide on a language to translate your website into, you must get it right. It’s not good enough to simply paste the English into Google translate and copy that to your local pages. The grammar, syntax and context must be accurate too.

While there are many human translators available to help you get it right, they cost money and will add time to your international expansion plans. While we aren’t suggesting you rush, by getting out into international markets with an English facing site, you could gather valuable experience that will give you long-term benefits.

Use the language you know best

The English language has around 400 million native speakers across the world and is the most popular second language. Taking native and non-native English speakers into consideration makes English the most widely spoken language.

It is also an official language in 67 countries, including 27 non-sovereign states. Recent research suggests almost 1.4 billion people speak English. That’s quite a big global market at your disposal.

In fact, drilling down further, there are over 51 million potential customers in the top ten countries where +75% of the people speak English as an additional language.

Country

As an additional language[1]

Number

%

 Netherlands

15,250,000

90.9

 Norway

4,500,000

90

 Dominica

60,000

89.55

 Nauru

10,700

89.17

 Sweden

9,236,000

89

 Denmark

4,770,000

86

 Israel

6,105,000

83.6

 Zimbabwe

11,530,710

79.86

 Malta

352,000

77.7

 Northern Mariana Islands

65,000

77.38

Source: Wikipedia.com


That’s certainly a large customer base to get your international expansion started, but what’s it worth? You’re a profit-making company and you need to be sure you’re going to get a good return on your investment when putting your faith in English speaking markets.

Thankfully, nationmaster.com found the financial numbers add up too. They found that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in countries where English is spoken as a first language by most of the population is:

  • US$22.11 trillion for 25% of the world and
  • US$451.53 million for 6% of the world

The economy of English-speaking countries is incredibly strong and ultimately ripe for you to broaden your horizons into new global markets.

It’s a great start, and you can enhance localisation from there

While using English to get set up in foreign markets may well give you a boost, we do need to offer a health warning.

Staying with English is not a long-term solution for some markets, and you’ll need to have plans to get your website localised further in due course. We’ll explain why in a moment.

As we’ve highlighted before, in certain global locations you need to make sure you appear local. The top ways of doing this are:

  • Currency: Not only will your international customers appreciate being able to compare your product price to others more easily, but it’s also more familiar to them and they’ll be more comfortable buying from you.
  • Payment method: Not everywhere has the same credit cards or web-based payment options like PayPal. You’ll need to make sure your website switches options depending on the location of your customer.
  • Delivery and returns: This is one for a delivery provider like Asendia. How well do they know the local area, how cost effective are their returns? Do they know the local customs for returns and do they have international fulfilment centres (warehouses) you can use?
  • Design: Localising the design of your website is also important. Colours for example may create a different first impression depending on the location. Red, for example, can mean luck, prosperity and love in some cultures but in others it represents death and grief.


There are a whole host of ecommerce platforms (eshopworld, Shopify, Magento and Bigcommerce) that will help with most of these options and others, but there will be a point where you’ll need to look at translating your website too.

 

So why are we saying you should do this when we’ve just said it’s ok if you’re using your own native English tongue? Well, simply put, launching in English gives you a head start.

You’ll be able to hit the ground running with as much localisation as you can, already taken care of by one of the ecommerce platforms mentioned above, allowing you to analyse your sales data and focus on getting the translation right.

You’ll need to spend time deciding which languages you want to translate to, bearing in mind in Europe alone there are 24 officially recognised languages, and get it all tested properly before turning them on.

Your sales data will help you decide which countries your English language site has been hitting the mark with and the ones you’ve not. You can then use this data to decide which locations need to be translated and the ones that can be left for now, or until sales patterns change.

Don’t forget if you would like to speak to someone who can give you more insights into how localising your website, while using your own language to your advantage, drop us a line.

Asendia operates in 17 global locations, delivering millions of packages worldwide each month and we’ve translated our website into (only) 13 different languages, so we’re here to help.


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