Many international customers want to shop on global sites, but they often aren’t comfortable shopping in another language — even when they can speak that language. An increasing number of sites are offering multiple language versions to meet global audiences' needs and expand their customer base.
Offering Multiple Language Versions
During an ecommerce study in China, we found that offering a translated Chinese version or a dedicated Chinese site was a big plus for international brands. Once they entered a site written in a foreign language, users’ first instinct was to look for a Chinese version. Some preferred Chinese sites because of their unfamiliarity with specific category and product names –- for example, on pharmaceutical websites.
A Chinese participant wanted to buy some fish oil for his parents from an Australian pharmacy website. Despite being able to read some English, he was worried about pharmaceutical terms and jargon. He was happy to discover a Chinese version of this site.
“It’s great for them to have a Chinese version because I can’t imagine buying supplements on an English site — I would need a translation. There would be so many terms.”
In other cases, Chinese shoppers had to rely on Chinese versions of foreign sites, because they didn’t know the language at all. For example, some Chinese shoppers in our study wanted to shop on South Korean sites, but they didn’t speak or read Korean at all. When these shoppers encountered South Korean sites that didn’t offer a Chinese version, they couldn’t shop there.
When you decide to reach out to a user group who does not speak your site’s language we recommend that you first provide a translation of your site in that group’s language, before you move on to offering localized sites for your biggest markets.
Language Switchers vs. Country Switchers
Typically, on ecommerce sites, you may encounter one of two possible language-switching features: language switchers and country switchers.
Language switchers do not differentiate among speakers of the same language who live in different countries or regions.
For example, kidsroom.com offered an English version of its site. All English-speaking customers visited the same version, regardless of whether they lived in the US, the UK, or Australia.
Country switchers provide country-specific versions of the site that may go beyond language differences and may provide various degrees of localization. They are frequently used by large global organizations with branches scattered all over the world. Customers choose a shipping country and, possibly, a language and currency.
Look Fantastic, a skincare company based in the UK, took this approach. Customers could visit a China Mainland version of the site, which included a country switcher together with the language and currency.
No matter which approach you choose for your international customers, localized or translated, it’s critical that shoppers can use the version they need. We provide 6 tips to make it easy for users to switch the language (or shipping country) on your ecommerce site.
Tips for Easy Language Switching
Tip 1: Default to the language version that matches users’ browser settings.
It may sound odd, but the first tip is to ensure that users don’t need to use the language switcher at all. It saves an extra step for users if you can automatically detect and set the user’s country and language based on the browser’s preference settings. This method is the simplest for users because they don’t have to interrupt their task to select a location or language.
Net-A-Porter showed users location-specific versions based on the browser’s settings. During our test with Chinese participants, the site automatically displayed the Chinese version with the CNY currency. Users were satisfied with this default and believed that all products shown in this version could be shipped directly to China because of the availability of the Chinese version.
If it is not possible for a site to detect the user’s country, then it is better to ask the user to identify their country rather than risk making an incorrect guess (which the user might not realize until further along in the shopping process). Zara.com asked shoppers to choose a country site instead of detecting location automatically.
Users should also be able to indicate if they want the site to remember their choice to avoid having to make a country or language selection on repeat visits. The country or language, even if saved, should be easy for users to change in the future, as we discuss below.
Tip 2: On desktop sites, put the language switcher in the top corners (left or right).
When automatic detection fails to work or users want to manually change the site language, it’s crucial that the language switcher be easy to find.
Across time and cultures, we found that users looked to the upper right corner to change a country or language setting. If they couldn’t find it there, they would turn to the top left corner. We observed that in our previous round of US studies and in our most recent study with Chinese users. This behavior makes sense, because utility features in sites are often located in that page area.
For example, a user in the US browsed Asos.com for three minutes before noticing that the site had defaulted to the UK version, with all prices listed in British pounds. She commented, “I don’t understand these prices, did I do something to change the currency?”
Then she looked to the top right corner of the site, which hosted a dropdown with the UK flag and the pound selected as default. She easily changed the country. Even though the site had an easy-to-locate country switcher, it would have been even better if it had correctly detected the user’s location in the United States.
We observed similar expectations with Chinese participants. Feelunique.com offered a dedicated Chinese website, but a female participant didn’t realize it, since she was on feelunique.com, the original UK site. She had a feeling that this site supported international shipping because there was a promotional banner at the top of the page stating, China: Free delivery over 75 pounds. However, she didn’t think there was a specific Chinese version.
After a second search prompted by the researcher, she finally found the Chinese version at the very bottom of the page.
“It’s not usual. It’s different from a normal site. Other sites put this at the top left or right corner, stating ‘country/region/language.’”
Obviously, the site detected her location when displaying the corresponding delivery-fee promotion, but it didn’t switch her to the Chinese-specific version. This was a lost opportunity: automatically redirecting her to the Chinese site, asking her whether she wants to go to the Chinese site, or, at least, putting the country switcher in the top right corner would all have helped the user discover and access the local site.
Tip 3: On mobile sites, put the language switcher above the fold or inside the navigation menu.
While people in the United States use both computers and mobile devices to shop online, many international shoppers rely more heavily on their phones. For instance, according to chyxx.com, mobile transactions made up about 85% of the market share of all online purchases in China in 2019.
During our study, we found that some ecommerce sites did not offer a language switcher on the mobile version. As a result, new visitors will believe that the site doesn’t support international shopping and some returning users will be confused by the lack of consistency between desktop and mobile.
For instance, the South Korean clothing retailer G-Market offered a language switcher on its desktop version but not on its mobile site. One Chinese participant was a returning user. She was very frustrated after trying a few icons, none of which helped her get to the Chinese site. “I remember when I visited their website on my laptop last time, they had that option!”
Where should the language switcher be located on mobile so that it’s easily discoverable? The top right corner of the page (the traditional location for the language switcher on the desktop) is often taken by other, more important links such as account information or shopping cart. As a result, some sites put the language switcher in the footer. Unfortunately, that is not a discoverable location — mobile screens are small and pages tend to be long, so users are less likely to reach the footer.
During our studies, we found that putting the language switcher within the menu is a good alternative to having it in the top right or left corner.
For example, Amcal+, an Australian pharmacy website, offered a localized site for purchasers from Mainland China. On the desktop version, the link to the Chinese site was in the top left corner; on the mobile version, it was listed as the last option within the hamburger menu. During our study, users were able to locate the link with both versions.
Tip 4: Display the name of an available language in that language (e.g., Español instead of Spanish).
If users are able to select a language, the name of that language should be listed in that language. For instance, English should always be listed as English, rather than Inglés, and Spanish should always be listed as Español. (Even if foreigners may not know, for example, that Deutsch means German, rest assured that anybody who can read a language will also know its name, and these users are the only ones who would want to select that menu item.) Burberry’s mobile site did a good job listing available languages in that language, instead of in the current language.
The Airbnb site listed both the language and the name of the country in the language that was used for that country version. For instance, for Spain, it displayed both Español (the name of the language) and España (the name of the country). The country information is helpful especially when there are localized sites for different regions that speak the same language, like Chile and Columbia. Airbnb also displayed pertinent suggestions for language choices in a panel at the top of the country list, thus making it easier for users to find the right country setting without scanning through the whole list.
Tip 5: Use a combination of symbols to represent the switch.
The language switcher should be recognizable even when the user doesn’t know the language of the interface. Besides the name of the country or of the language (written in that language), show additional visual indicators such as the country’s national flag or its currency symbol. These might sound redundant, but they help in several ways:
- The resulting target size is bigger and thus, the language switcher is more discoverable.
- There’s an increased chance that at least one of the symbols will be recognized.
- They alert users that it’s possible to use a localized site or a different currency.
A Chinese participant liked that some South Korean websites used national flags to indicate specific language versions. She commented:
“That’s a very smart design! I know what it means immediately. If it says ‘Language,’ what if I don’t know what ‘language’ means in either Korean or English? I like it.”
However, we don’t recommend using only a national flag to represent the language-switching feature. First, the resulting target will be small and hard to discover. Moreover, if users were thrown to a wrong language version, they may not recognize that national flag and it might take longer for them to locate the language switcher.
ASOS only used a small, circular national flag icon to represent the country-switching feature. This design was easy for customers to miss. Even though the circle is visually nice, this shape makes the graphic harder to recognize as a flag, since virtually all flags are rectangles.
In contrast, Selfridges used a much more discoverable design: the language switcher was signaled by a flag icon and also by the currency and language: HK/ HKD $ | English. Users could tell that they could pay with Hong Kong dollars on Selfridges’s site based on the information in the language switcher.
Tip 6: Allow users to change language, country, and currency separately.
International shoppers expected to be able to change the site language independently of the country they were shipping to or their preferred currency. Some shoppers wanted to see product information in the original language, in case it would be more detailed. Some believed there would be more products listed on the original site. Others wanted to use a different currency to get a better exchange rate. Finally, others simply wanted to know where else the company operated in the world.
For instance, in an ecommerce study in India, we found that, even though many Indian shoppers spoke both Hindi and English, they preferred shopping on the English version of websites.
Another user in Mexico shopped on AliExpress in English instead of Spanish, because “AliExpress translates things automatically, so it has some funny translations. It’s easier in English.”
Conclusion
To expand your customer base globally, consider providing versions of your site in several languages. Automatically detect users’ browser settings and default to that language and location to save their time.
Some international purchasers want to manually change the language or country settings. Place language and country switchers in discoverable positions (top right or left corner of the page or a hamburger on mobile) and make sure that people will recognize them by using the additional signifiers such as the country flag and currency and displaying each language name in that language. Give users extra flexibility by allowing them to change languages separately from other site settings.
For more advice on how to design for international shoppers, see the International Purchasers volume of our Ecommerce User Experience report series.
