Back in the 1960's and 70's, small businesses were not very preoccupied with growth. But, that mindset is a thing of the past. Many small businesses in the United States and in other countries, were actually family businesses. Unfortunately, consumers were persuaded to embrace the idea of 'super' markets that advertised convenience, offering a variety of products. The days were gone that the shopper had to make separate trips to the bakery, butcher's shop, fish monger, and drug store. Nevertheless, a high price was paid for such convenience--rushed and low quality service, rush hour, higher prices, and sadly, the loss of a good number of family businesses.
Growing a Business High Tech Style
In today's world, it's nearly essential for the small business, family owned or not, to strongly think of growing. This involves tedious labor such as securing a dependable and fully functional Internet presence, a website. This permits a company to offer electronic commerce, commonly termed 'e-commerce'. Along with a website with e-commerce, arrives the need for what is called 'website localization'. What exactly does website localization mean? In summary, it's the process of redoing a website with content in one language, and geared towards a specific culture, so that it's a site responding to the needs of foreign visitors.
Small business owners can significantly increase revenue by not only serving 'cyber-world' consumers, but also, foreign customers. While it's a fact that the U.S.A is the world leader in computer usage, and English is a dominant language, additional factors must be taken into consideration. Website localization hasn't become a popular topic of interest for no reason. Consider that only approximately 35% of Internet users speak English, and not all of them speak it as their mother tongue. Many of these English-speaking users would prefer a site in their native language. This is proven by the fact that around 50% of search engine queries are made in a language other than English. If these Internet users prefer querying in their language, how much more they would prefer to do business in their language. It's estimated that people are literally four times as likely to respond to content if it's in a language with which they're very familiar, a concept everyone should be able to comprehend.
Website Localization in Practice
A real life demonstration of the importance of website localization can be observed in the increase in sales that a Bulgarian company gained. The Bulgarian actor Hristo Shopov grew in fame in the U.S.A through his role in the movie, The Passion Of The Christ. Americans took an interest in getting other films in which he starred. Balkanatolia.com stood ready to accommodate an English-speaking consumer base only because they had previously made the wise decision to acquire website localization services. Any search engine query in English containing the name of the actor or of one of his films, rapidly led to the English language section of the Bulgarian website. Once there, the visitor, whether Bulgarian or English-speaking, could easily elect to view content in either language. Their website localization service provider had established them with a dual-language platform for secure e-commerce.
Website localization also influences company credibility and may help to grow in sales.
