Over the next few years, English will lose its importance as the de facto language for business in the world of e-commerce, as languages such as German, Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese significantly rise in importance.
That’s just one of the findings from a recent study that will be discussed during a live, online webinar presented by Translated, a global translation agency that combines AI with human creativity, on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021 at 9 a.m. Pacific/12 p.m. Eastern. The webinar will feature key industry leaders from top e-commerce companies–such as Airbnb, Asics, and Shopify–as well as experts from the retail, research, and academic sectors.
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“It is no longer acceptable to offer information in a language other than the one your customer speaks”
The webinar will discuss the findings of the company’s T-Index platform, which analyzes 195 languages and how to best conduct business in countries with the greatest potential across 200 product categories. The goal of the renewed research, according to Translated CEO and Co-Founder Marco Trombetti, is to help companies decide which countries to focus on to maximize global e-commerce ROI and what languages to use when translating content through 2025.
“It is no longer acceptable to offer information in a language other than the one your customer speaks,” said Salvo Giammarresi, head of localization at Airbnb.
Additionally, e-commerce evolved significantly during the pandemic as companies had to find new channels to serve their customers. In this scenario, most e-commerce accelerated towards a hyper-personalized user experience, which included the need for users to enjoy all content in their own language.
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Some of the findings of the T-Index, to be discussed in the webinar, include:
Translation, Hyper-Localization are Key: In e-commerce in 2021, the T-Index indicates that a website needs to be translated into 20 different languages to access 90 percent of the market. It’s a surprising figure, given that only nine languages were required in 2018
English Fading: The significance of English in global business will diminish between 2022-2025 as the hyper-personalization of languages increases. In 2018, only two languages (English and Japanese) were needed to target 50 percent of the world’s online purchasing power. That’s changing rapidly.
New Trends Rising: Companies indicate that providing content in users’ own language makes a significant difference in terms of conversion rate, loyalty and sales. This is especially true in China and areas of Southeast Asia.
“The importance of communication centered on the recipient begins by speaking the language in which your customers are comfortable with and understand,” said Luca De Biase, the director of Translated’s Imminent research center, the publisher of the T-Index. “We’ve found that any international project can be improved by communicating in your customers’ language.”