Learn why your online business needs to localize the Shopify customer account page.
What’s the first thing your seasoned customers do on your site? 90% of them would be logging in to their customer account.
That’s because the customer account page is like their personal space on your site. It’s where they can access all their details, order history, saved items in wishlist, initiate returns, etc.
Since customers treat it like their personal space, the more you personalize it, the better it is for them and for you.
But it’s time to go beyond just greeting them with their first name. It’s time to personalize their experience with – localization!
Let’s get into the details of localization of the customer account page.
Shopify customer account page localization – what, why, & how
What is localization in ecommerce?
Amazon is available in 10 languages and Alibaba in 16. Netflix adapts content based on different regions. Apple often adapts its advertisements to match the cultural expectations of its target audience in different countries.
These are all localization strategies of brands. Ecommerce localization is a strategy to adapt the site’s content, blogs, product description, payment methods, language, social media, etc., to resonate with customers of different regions.
Localization means changing your ecommerce website content to match the language, cultural, political, and social expectations of customers in different regions.
Here’s an example of ecommerce localization:
For example, say your Shopify site is generating a lot of traffic from Japan. But your site is in English and your price tags are in USD.
Your Japanese customers would find it difficult to read your content. Moreover, they’ll have to use currency converters to know the price in Japanese yen.
Instead, what if you enabled them to change the language to Japanese and have a currency converter app that automatically converted USD to JPY? That’s one way of localization.
Here’s an example of how global brand ASOS does it:
Why is localization so important in ecommerce?
Consider these statistics to begin with:
- Every $1 spent on localization can generate an ROI of $25
- 72.4% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a site with information in their own language
- Nine out of 10 people do not even visit sites that are not in their local language
- 70% of consumers read reviews before buying products and when the reviews are written in local languages, they’re more likely to be read
- 92% of consumers prefer to shop from sites that mention price in their local currency
Now let’s talk about the nuances of how ecommerce localization helps:
Better customer engagement
To engage customers, you need to communicate clearly with them. Right? Now, imagine if you try to communicate in English with customers who are German or Spanish speakers.
Psychological studies found that the use of foreign language slows shoppers down as they concentrate more on deciphering the content. The study also said that foreign language takes emotions out of decision-making.
Simply put, to hook your customers to your site, products, and content, you have to ensure they get your message. The easier you make it for them, the more engaged they would get.
Starting from your site’s searchability (SEO keywords) to getting shoppers to spend more time on your site, localization helps. That said, localization is more than just translating your site in different languages. It is more about improving your cultural and emotional quotient.
Higher customer retention
Among the main reasons customers churn is that they no longer resonate with your brand or your message. A well thought out localization strategy can help make your customers feel more connected, comfortable and familiar with your brand.
A few factors to consider for ecommerce localization strategy:
- Speak/ write in the local language
- Be sensitive to the local culture
- Understand the local religious and political sentiments
- Offer multilingual customer support
- Collect customer feedback
- Understand customers’ purchase habits
Increased sales
The more your customers resonate with your brand, the more likely they are to stick around and shop more from you. Conversely, if you ignore their needs and preferences, they’re most likely to avoid your brand.
Case in point, when McDonald’s launched in France – the brand ignored the fact that the French expect to be able to order wine at any restaurant. McDonald’s first quarter was a huge failure because of this cultural negligence. Later, when wine was added to the menu, their sales increased significantly.
For ecommerce, not just the home page or product descriptions, but localization should be applied all across the site, including the customer account page.
Let’s get into the details of localization and how you can customize the customer account page.
Why localize your customer account page?
To offer a more personalized experience
The customer account page is your customers’ personal space on your site. It holds all their important information:
- Personal details (name, birthdate)
- Delivery address
- Payment details (saved cards)
- Wishlist and saved items
- Recently viewed products
- Rewards
- Re-order button
- Return and exchange button
It is the first place where most customers head to when they revisit a site after they’ve registered. This page also helps brands to demonstrate the seriousness and the customer-centricity of the brand.
Clearly, the customer account page is one of the first and the most important features that should be localized to adapt to customers’ preferences.
To improve customer retention
What’s the main purpose of your website? Is it to acquire new customers? Is it to build a strong customer base? If, as a business, your only focus is on acquiring customers, a simple, basic customer account page would be sufficient for you.
However, if your aim is to build long-term relationships, it’s a must to offer a detailed and functional customer account page with all features. It would help you create an easy interface that your customers can use efficiently.
When you care to offer a localized customer account page that improves customers’ experience, they would feel that you value their time and pay attention to their shopping experience. The result: customers will keep coming back to your brand.
Some aspects of a localized customer account page are: local language, local currency, local pick-up locations, local and international shipment tracking, the tone and words used in the content, etc.
The above factors make a huge difference to customers’ sentiments towards a brand. The more comfortable they feel with your brand, the longer they’ll do business with you.
Improve customer engagement
As discussed above, the easier it is for customers to relate to your message, the more engaged they’d feel. It’s as simple as this – if customers don’t understand what they read on your site, they’d soon get bored.
If customers have to pay a lot of attention to what you’re trying to say, they’d lose interest. If they don’t feel a cultural connection with your brand message, they’d feel put off.
A localized customer account page helps:
- Hook customer attention and keep them engaged
- Makes it easy for them to access information
- Makes it faster for them to perform activities such as re-order, exchange, etc.
- It’s easier for customers to understand rewards programs as each brand’s program differs from the other
- Makes it easy for customers to use different features
Increase conversion rate
A study found that when not localized well, an ecommerce site can impact customers’ satisfaction levels.
Customers expect believable, timely, relevant, and detailed information on sites. Moreover, they need to feel confident that their items will be delivered as promised.
Shopify stores can ensure this by customizing and localizing the customer account page. For example, when customers shop from international sites, they’d want to track their products. Here, localization would mean enabling them to track the shipment abroad as well as in their own country.
Another key factor of localization would be to offer customer support in their language. The exchange policy should specify details such as how (local post, shipping company) and where (the company’s address) the customer would have to send the package.
These may seem like small factors, but they make customers’ experience easy and help increase conversion rate.
Here’s a Shopify customer account page template example:
To localize, customize your customer account page. Here’s how.
A big question you may ask is how should you customize your Shopify account page? The below points are the first steps to localization of your Shopify account page.
All the tab texts
Based on the features you provide, your Shopify customer account page would have different tabs. For example, personal details, delivery address, wishlist, rewards program, recently viewed products, etc.
There are two main ways to customize and localize these tab texts:
1. You can change the word to something that’s more relevant to your audience. For example, change ‘personal details’ to ‘profile’ if your audience would relate more to the latter.
2. Once you finalize which word is more suitable to your audience, change the language to the local language.
Store credit: The feature enables you to run store credits, rewards and loyalty programs on your Shopify store. Incorporating this feature within the Shopify customer account page can help boost engagement. One way to customize and localize this tab is by changing the title of the tab. For example, change Store Credit to (Brand name) Credit and change the language based on customers’ location.
Social login: Social login enables fast login for customers. One way to localize this feature is to include social platforms most used in the specific regions. For example, if you’re localizing for China, the most popular Chinese social networking site is WeChat, not Facebook.
Wishlist: The Wishlist feature allows shoppers to save items they like to a list from which they can buy it later. To localize this feature, you could change the name of the tab and call it something that’s more relevant to the local customer base. Moreover, change the language, too.
Reorder: The reorder button enables customers to reorder items from the customer account page. This tab can be customized by changing the name, changing the language, and localizing the currency at checkout.
Recently viewed products: This section shows shoppers products they recently viewed on your site. One way to localize this section is by changing the currency in which shoppers see the prices based on their location.
Localization is a growing strategy. Here’s a look at how language localization has been growing.
Localize the currency
Shoppers feel most comfortable shopping in their own currency. That way, they do not have to spend time converting currencies, they can make quick purchase decisions, and feel more confident shopping.
Hence, your product prices, shopping cart, and currency details on the customer account page should be localized based on where your customers are shopping from. Or, you could give a drop box option for shoppers to choose the currency in which they’d like to shop.
Localize the payment solutions
Another key localization factor is the payment solutions. Every country has different payment methods. While you may not be able to incorporate all payment solutions to cater to customers in different countries, you could research the local standard payment methods and try to incorporate them as much as possible.
Localizing payment solutions makes customers feel more confident about making purchases as they know their money and personal details are used only by platforms they trust.
Shopify Customer Account Page Localization with Flits
Ready to start localizing your Shopify customer account page?
Flits Shopify customer account page app’s add-on Multi-language feature helps localize your Shopify customer account. It has the ability to customize shopping experiences by market, helps you reach new audiences in new markets, and scale faster with localization settings that optimize your customer account page.
You can improve your customers shopping experience by localization such as:
- Change the language on different pages or across your Shopify site
- Customize the names of the different tabs in the customer account page
- Customize the names of tabs across the site
Localization can feel overwhelming and difficult, but Flits makes it super easy. All you have to do is install the app, select the localization preferences, and start expanding your business in new markets.
Install Flits Customer Account app and Multi-Language add-on feature on your Shopify store today!
