4 reasons you need localized product descriptions when selling to clients worldwide

If you sell products online and want to expand your reach to the global market, it’s vitally important to make sure you offer localized product descriptions for your new target markets. Product localization is more than just translating the words from one language to another—it also means making sure that details like measurements, sizes, and number format have been adapted to fit the conventions of the new language.

Why are localized product descriptions important?

1) People prefer to shop in their native language

The independent research organization Common Sense Advisory (CSA Research) conducted a study in 2014 titled “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy: 2014.” They surveyed more than 3,000 global consumers in 10 non-English-speaking countries in various regions and found that an astonishing 75% prefer to do online shopping in their native language. 60% of the respondents said that they rarely or never buy from English-only websites. If you haven’t localized product descriptions for your new target market, you are missing out on this potential revenue.

2) Proper localization removes purchasing barriers

If you offer your website in your customer’s native language, it’s sure to make a good impression. But if the product descriptions are only translated without being fully localized, there might still be barriers to the purchase. If the customer is ordering shoes or clothing, are the sizes listed according to local sizing conventions? Do they prefer to see measurements in metric, or do they use the Imperial system? If they need to stop and research these things themselves, it drastically decreases their likelihood of making a spontaneous purchase. Even the number formatting is important—local variations might mean that the number format of your domestic language looks off-putting to members of your new target market. A localization and SEO service provider can make sure that all of these details are taken into consideration.

3) Full product localization minimizes returns

If your product descriptions have been properly and professionally localized, they will include all necessary information in the format your customer prefers. This minimizes the chances of them purchasing the wrong size, length or volume of a product and then needing to return it. While working with a localization an SEO service provider may cost a bit more at the beginning, it will save a great deal in the long-run by minimizing customer service costs.

4) Localized product descriptions improve your search engine rankings

By localizing the product descriptions in your webshop, you make it easier for your customers to find you. If they are searching in their own language, your product descriptions need to be in that language for you to appear in the search results. Even if the manufacturer’s name for the item is the same in both languages, it’s likely that other details that they search for will be in their native language. For example, the general type of item (hard drive, shoe, sweater), or the size or gender that the item is intended for. You will only show up in their search results if you have properly localized all these details in your product description.

Product descriptions aren’t just the end result of your marketing – they’re part of the attracting customers attention themselves. Descriptions should describe the product, yes, but they should do so in a way that helps answer client questions and draws them in to the positive features of the products. You can tell that qualitative localization of a good's description is more than just translation, It’s this interactivity that separates it from lazy translations. You need accurate information, of course, but you need an engaging way to bring it across and squash questions before they’re asked.

Our happy clients like Samsung, Disney, Erricson and others are reling on PoliLingua to localize their media products and marketing work.