If you want to achieve global growth and an international audience, building a multilingual Shopify store is critical to your success. Find out how you can go multilingual on Shopify and whether the multi-language store can boost your sales here.
By displaying another language alone, you can mathematically double your potential audience. However, there are a few things to keep in mind. We've summarized how to go about implementing multilingual landing pages, product descriptions, blog posts, emails, payments, and international search engine optimization.
As a Shopify Plus partner, we have already built several multilingual stores for international brands. As a first step, we always make it a point to assess with our clients, based on their current numbers, whether globalizing their business and expanding into more markets is worth it at this point in time. If you are already sure that the multilingual store is the right step for you, you can find all the features you need to expand your multilingual store here.
What is a multilingual store and why should I bother with it?
In a multi-language store, your store is translated into the right language depending on the visitor's location and customized according to their region. Help your customers understand what you offer and guide them to the checkout with a packed shopping cart.
With a multi-language store, you naturally expand your customer base and open up opportunities for your business to acquire and delight new customers worldwide. The content must be properly translated throughout the entire customer journey - from the landing page to the order confirmation. Only then can you treat all customers with the same appreciation and smoothly transport your workflow to all markets. By offering a multilingual Shopify store, you can significantly increase your traffic and sales.
But: expanding into foreign markets only makes sense if your customers don't have to spend time translating product descriptions and other texts. The question always arises: "Would I do this work myself?" - If your answer is no, then you should read on carefully.
Data analysis: the first step to use Shopify multilingually
First, you should perform a detailed data analysis to determine if a multi-language store makes sense for your business (right now).
Are you already running a Shopify store? Very good, because then you can use Shopify's own analytic tools. Your store is still running on another system? No problem, with Google Analytics you get insights into the data that are relevant for the consideration.
When analyzing data, first take a close look at which regions your traffic comes from. As a rule, the lion's share should come from the country of your target market (Germany). However, if you already identify relevant traffic from other countries, it is clearly time to look into a multi-language store. Generally, the conversion rate of an online store in a country increases as soon as its language is integrated. This means that you are already building on existing traffic. If you have chosen a target market outside of the analysis data, further attention will be paid to SEO and your marketing activities for the country to be developed.xtagstartz