7 quick tips to localize your website
I thought I would drop these 7 tips to optimize your website to better engage with overseas customers — things you can do today without hiring a web dev team or investing a lot in localization.
I thought I would drop these 7 tips to optimize your website to better engage with overseas customers. These are things you can do today without hiring a web dev team or investing a lot in localization.
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Add an IP-address-triggered "Welcome mat" in a local language to welcome visitors and let them know you have them covered as they continue shopping. The rest of your website doesn't need to be in different languages on day one. But test your customer drop-off and start translating as you see what your traffic does.
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Localize your currency — use a plug-in to enable your customer to see what the prices are in their local currency. Remember, if you are not actually "localizing your bank account" with services like WithReach or Payoneer then your currency-converted prices will still fluctuate depending on when a visitor comes to your site and when they actually purchase the product.
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Check-out localization — ensure you have the proper fields for a given country in your check-out such as addresses (Provinces and States), phone numbers, postal codes, etc.
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Duties & taxes calculations — ensure your customer knows what the full price will be including the local duties and taxes at the point of check-out. Whether you charge the amount up front (DDP - Delivery Duties Paid) or after the product arrives (DDU - Delivery Duties Unpaid) — it is important to let them know the total and even give them the option.
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Better customer services engagement — To start, just change your phone number to include the country code such as +1. But if you are not going to have someone active during business hours in your target market, consider timing asynchronous customer services options such as email, text.
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Shipping — Priced accordingly — Volumes dictate shipping pricing but keep in mind that it's better to give free shipping and make less on your sales to build trust and loyalty. And make it easy to return the product since that is often a key concern among cross-border shoppers, yet return rates are low in cross-border sales.
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Facilitate "Duty Drawback" — Don't put the responsibility to apply for a return of duties and taxes on the consumer. Provide full refunds for your consumer but recognize it can take up to 18 months for you to get that money back.