By truly localising your e-commerce strategy you gain the opportunity to grow revenues and increase sales globally. It will also help to reduce the number of refunds and returns in international markets and it will help you to comply with the regulations of each market. PIM Systems can be a huge help with many features designed to promote ease of selling across different channels and markets.
Language and descriptions
Translating your product descriptions for each country if the language is different, or simply using more colloquial descriptions or spellings if the language is the same, is essential as a step in a localisation strategy. With rich descriptions translated correctly, your business will see better rankings in the targeted regions.
Modifying media content for each market
An important part of a localisation strategy is modifying your media content to be appropriate for the market you are targeting. This can be a wide variety of things: Translated video content, culturally appropriate imagery, relevant safety datasheets, etc.
Payment options
Giving your customers the option to pay in their currencies will make them more likely to purchase. The PIM can store the pricing structure in any currency you decide to sell in, and you can simply map each region’s price to the store for that region.
Promotions/Seasonal Content
When truly selling globally, it means your stores may differ from region to region based on different seasons or holidays. For example, your summer collections will be sold at a different time in Australia than in the U.K. Promotions may also differ across regions, like discounted prices around Thanksgiving in the U.S. which generally isn’t celebrated in the U.K.
PIM can help with this by keeping all of your products and the data associated with them stored in the ‘Master’ Channel. Each store can then have its own range of products come and go as the year goes on. This is far less effort than managing several different e-commerce stores.
Measurements
Different countries use different units of measurement and different sizing for clothing. It is useful to give your customers the measurements they are used to, like pounds for the U.S. and kilograms for the U.K. They are more likely to purchase products from your store when they are more familiar with the information being provided.
The PIM can help by storing the data in several units of measurement. You can enter the data in your usual measurements and then have it convert to other measurements automatically using formulas. This means you only need to change a measurement once and it will update all of your regional stores with accurate data.