Global E-Commerce's Language is Not English

**JJMcClure** · January 24th, 2012, 03:26 PM

Article here

This is a bit of an eye opener. I had been guilty of the assumption that the majority of online shoppers would be English friendly, apparently not.

**benitez17** · January 24th, 2012, 07:47 PM

If English isn't the language, what is? I'm not surprised that most online shoppers don't speak English, but I would be surprised if there was a language that was more widely understood, and I'd be really surprised if you could reach a larger market in terms of dollars with a different language.

**KenW3** · January 24th, 2012, 08:15 PM

Uttoran Sen wrote the article referenced by MarketingVox. The article at CopyBlogger is titled 12 Tips for Selling to a Global Audience

The CopyBlogger site itself is a valuable resource, and I've been on their mailing list since purchasing Premise. This site is focused on WordPress Solutions, and the information presented is often professional and useful.

I originally ran across them when looking for a good landing page theme. I did buy their Premise Theme for WordPress, which is specifically designed to create, track and test Landing and Squeeze pages. If you want to take a look at the theme, it's at GetPremise.com and I would recommend it. The education about optimization and copywriting, provided with the theme, may be worth the price by itself.

While this CopyBlogger article states that only 27% of online shoppers speak English, it does say Americans spend the most money online.

**JJMcClure** · January 25th, 2012, 03:38 AM

Originally Posted by KenW3

While this CopyBlogger article states that only 27% of online shoppers speak English, it does say Americans spend the most money online.

That's a good point. If the other 73% only spend a small percentage of what online sales generate, then does it matter that English friendly users are in a minority.

**Dave McM** · January 25th, 2012, 06:58 AM

Without knowing how JP Morgan arrived at their 27% figure, it's hard to judge how accurate it is, and I'm sceptical that it's really very meaningful. Just because a buyer's not in a country where English is the majority language or an official language, doesn't mean they don't speak English - at least well enough to buy online. (On the flip side of the coin, there are quite a few people living in majority-Anglophone countries who don't have English as their mother tongue.)

And, as everyone's said so far, you go where the money is, don't you? OK, it's a valid point that the majority of people online aren't native English speakers, but how much money are you going to be able to make right now by selling to eg Chinese web users?

**Slowdive** · January 25th, 2012, 11:33 AM

More over what to do? Getting a website translated into Japanese? I would simply have a lot of enquiries I could not manage unless I secured the services of a translator or firm to do it on an ongoing basis for me? Would my profits justify that expense?

**JJMcClure** · January 25th, 2012, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by Dave McM

Without knowing how JP Morgan arrived at their 27% figure, it's hard to judge how accurate it is, and I'm sceptical that it's really very meaningful.

Whose figures would you think had some basis in fact?

I did note when reading it that they prepared the report for the Department of Commerce. If I were working for one of the largest financial services organisations/bank on the planet and had to produce a report like that, I'd make sure I got my figures right so as not to embarass my employer and to keep my job....

I'm all for healthy scepticism but only if there's some logic behind it. Who benefits from lying about this and how would they get the DoC to participate in the conspiracy, and why?

**Chabrenas** · January 26th, 2012, 07:28 AM

An eye opener, certainly. But a lot of info leftout. Does anyone have a feel for the percentage of online sales that are local (like buying groceries in London) in different countries of the world?

**tke71709** · January 26th, 2012, 08:27 AM

Shame on you all for not pointing the truly useful paragraph in that report and making me read the thing myself.

Google also offers Global Market Finder, a free tool to help businesses identify markets with high demand for their products or services. The Global Market Finder automatically translates a keyword - Google gives the example of business suit - into 56 languages and then uses Google search trends data to see where in the world people search for the product or service.

Welcome back to the world of arbitrage, now using languages as the basic building block.

Did you know that I can buy the russian equivalent of "web hosting" for 78 cents a click with 2k+ searches a month? Certainly cheaper than trying to buy the English term in the USA which will cost me $11.82. Now, there are conversion rates and the such but that is just a quick look through the tool.

Now take that tidbit of knowledge and go get rich.

**JJMcClure** · January 26th, 2012, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by tke71709

Shame on you all for not pointing the truly useful paragraph in that report and making me read the thing myself.

Welcome back to the world of arbitrage, now using languages as the basic building block.

Did you know that I can buy the russian equivalent of "web hosting" for 78 cents a click with 2k+ searches a month? Certainly cheaper than trying to buy the English term in the USA which will cost me $11.82. Now, there are conversion rates and the such but that is just a quick look through the tool.

Now take that tidbit of knowledge and go get rich.

I did notice that actually but I'm a little wary of doing anything on this forum that might be seen as pushing a google product, you'll understand why.

However your post has given me an idea, so thanks for that.