How to Sell More to Your International Customers

By Guest author

Good entrepreneurs know there are always ways to grow their businesses … but great entrepreneurs understand the key to success is finding expansion opportunities where risk is low, and gains are high.

For Volusion-powered online stores owners, that opportunity exists now, in an unlikely place: language. Imagine a version of your Volusion ecommerce store, presented in several languages, serving global & domestic markets, and appearing in relevant regional and international search engines.

Take the greatest U.S.-based opportunity, the U.S. Hispanic market. There are more than 53 million Hispanics currently living in the U.S., just over 17% of the country’s population. (It’s growing, too, on track to hit nearly 30% of the U.S. population by 2050.) These shoppers are already hip to your way of selling. U.S. Hispanic consumers are web-savvy: 80% currently use social media, much greater than non-Hispanics (70%). Four years ago, the buying power of U.S. Hispanic consumers was an astounding $1 trillion. Next year, it’ll hit $1.5 trillion.

These are potential customers are already looking for your products … but they’re not finding them. This is because many are searching in Spanish. To woo these new customers, your online store must speak their language. Think of it as a one-two punch: By expanding into less competitive markets, your product offerings stand out … and by offering those products in-language, you’ll sell more.

Fact: People around the world prefer to shop in their native language.

According to a 2006 survey by Common Sense Advisory, 73% of respondents had a high propensity to buy in their native language. In 2014, consumer demand increased to 75%. Even more revealing, 56% said they “either spend more time on sites in their own language than they do in English—or boycott English-language URLs altogether,” the Common Sense Advisory found. English is no longer the lingua franca of e-commerce (if it ever was).

French-speaking Canadians are another underserved North American market. According to Canada’s Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, more than 9.5 million French speakers currently live in Canada; nearly 25% of Canadians “speak French as their mother tongue.”

Of course, going beyond North America, your online store can reach dozens of new markets – all in their languages of choice. The good news: Translation & localization isn’t the wallet-busting proposition it used to be. Solutions like GlobalNimbus provide an easy and cost-effective way to expand your business … without actually inheriting the expense and risk of expanding your business.

Joseph Bley is GlobalNimbus’ Director of Business Development. GlobalNimbus helps Volusion stores sell more around the world by deploying your website, translated and optimized for international commerce. Learn more at GlobalNimbus.com.

Via:: Volusion Online Business