E-commerce – selling goods and services over the Internet – has revolutionized the retail market. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that e-commerce is growing almost three times as fast as traditional retail and now accounts for about one out of every six dollars spent on retail. E-commerce also has the power to allow businesses to reach potential customers anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. That is roughly 5.3 billion people as of January 2024, increasing the need for e-commerce translations.
Most U.S. businesses limit themselves to only a small subset of this total, with the text of their e-commerce platform only in English. That cuts them off from foreign countries with millions of people speaking other languages – and, less obviously, from millions of people in the United States as well.
That is significant because studies show shoppers globally strongly prefer to purchase products marketed in their native languages and may even refuse to consider products marketed in a foreign language.
Professional e-commerce translations can provide a solution, making the company’s brand and products visible to vast new audiences, with the potential for increasing sales and profits.
ASTA-USA Translation Services Inc. recommends businesses consider three languages in developing their e-commerce platforms and investing in e-commerce translations.
Spanish: Adapting e-commerce sites for Spanish connects businesses to markets that they can reach with standard shipping. In 2023, e-commerce transactions in Latin America totaled $500 billion – and may almost double that to $923 billion by 2026.
More importantly, Spanish is a de facto second language in the United States, with more than 40 million people speaking Spanish at home, according to the Census Bureau. That is one of eight potential customers nationwide, a market not to be neglected.
Tagalog: This traditional language of the Philippines is also the third-most-common language other than English (LOTE) spoken in the United States, with nearly 1.8 million speakers. (It trails only Spanish and Chinese.) The United States also has strong trade relations with the Philippines, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The nation’s e-commerce market is growing at an estimated 17% annual rate and expected to reach $24 billion by 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of International Trade Administration.
Vietnamese: Stemming from the large influx of emigres in the 1970s and 1980s, Vietnamese has become the fourth-most-common language in the United States, with more than 1.5 million speaking it at home. Vietnam also has become a major e-commerce market, with an estimated 30% growth rate driving a projection of $14 billion in sales by 2025.
Regardless of which markets a business target with e-commerce translations, ASTA-USA recommends using a translation service with both experience in commerce and e-commerce communication and a deep understanding of cultural nuances. The translator must be able to accurately adjust currencies and units of measurement and write sales pitches with sensitivity to local customs and dialects.
Without that precision, the business might not only miss potential customers but irrevocably damage its reputation in a market or country.
Do you want to learn more about e-commerce translations in Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or any other language(s)? Connect with ASTA-USA’s network of subject matter expert translators today by inquiring online or by giving us a call at 1.866.446.1860.