Want to reach the Italian market? Here are my top tips on how to do that successfully.

When you are starting out a new online business, English seems the way to go, but you could miss a lot of potential customers that don’t speak the language.

Only 12.43%  of the Italian population can speak English, and if you want to reach your Italian customers, you have to speak their language. In fact, it’s proved that language barrier is one of the main reason customers don’t buy from you, even if your store is the first to pop up on Google search.

Common Sense Advisory, an independent market research company, conducted a study on how translation, localization, and brand recognition affect international e-commerce success. They reported that “localization improves customer experience and increases engagement in the brand dialogue. It should be a rigorously planned and executed business strategy for any company looking to grow internationally.”

If you need more reasons to make your e-commerce reach the Italian market, you should know that in Italy the online shoppers are around 38 million, 62% of the entire population. This number is expected to grow further, reaching 41 million by 2023.

So let’s say you have a fashion business and your online sales are great. You noticed you have some Italian customers and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to reach the country of fashion and design. How can you do that?

Here are my top tips:

✔ Install a multilingual plugin

Making your website multilingual can be a tricky and overwhelming task. Luckily there are some useful WordPress plugins you can install to make the process easier. There are two types of multilingual plugins: auto-translates, which use online services that automatically translate the content, and the self-translate ones, that require the involvement of a professional translator during the translation process. If you want to be sure to generate leads and increase revenues, the professional translator option is the only way to go and you will find out why in a bit. In the meantime, here you can find a list of the best plugins you can install on WordPress.

✔ Translate and localize

When you spent time and money building your brand identity, the last thing you want to do is give your copies to a machine. A professional translator that really gets your brand essence and mission, that understands your target and perfectly masters your field is essential to be sure to engage clients and generate leads. Your translator can also be your cultural advisor, avoiding you some unpleasant situations, in case you used words or way of saying that can sound offensive in another country, and helping you spot the right time to make some promotional sales.

✔ Offer currency conversion and relevant payment methods

Currency is like language: giving the chance to your customers to see the prices in a currency they can understand will help them make a better informed decision about their purchase and to buy an item faster and with less concern about the final price that they will need to pay. At checkout, keep in mind that not every country has the same popular payment methods. In Italy, for example, the most used ones are credit cards, PayPal and bank transfer, but 19% of customers still prefer to pay upon delivery.

Ready to take your business further and reach the Italian market? Contact me or get in touch on Social Media ?