Press Release

NEW SURVEY REVEALS THAT GLOBAL ONLINE CONSUMERS DON'T BUY WHAT THEY CAN'T UNDERSTAND

75% of the 2,430 online consumers from eight countries rarely or never purchase from English-only websites
52% will only purchase from websites in their own language

13 October 2006: Most people prefer to buy online in their own language and the greater the cost and complexity of the product or service the greater the need for localized information. This marketing logic is substantiated by concrete and unambiguous data in a new report released today by leading marcoms localization specialist, Wordbank, and Common Sense Advisory, the business globalization research firm.

In “Can't Read, Won't Buy - Why Language Matters on Global Website”, the global buying preferences of more than 2,400 active online consumers from eight non-anglophone countries in Europe, Asia and South America were analysed from the perspectives of nationality, English-language proficiency, gender and age.

The loud and clear message for global companies is that language really does matter. Even if an English language website does manage to attract international consumers (75% spend most of their time on own-language sites), they do not buy products or services if they cannot understand the supporting information. Global companies who are serious about selling online and increasing their share of the global market need to make their websites available in the language of the site visitor.

Three quarters of all respondents rarely or never purchase from English-only websites and this percentage rises to 86% of French and 84% of Russian speakers who are four times less likely than Spaniards to buy from an English-language site. Some countries are more resistant to English than others with consumers in France and Japan being most resistant.

Other findings from the report include:

Can't read, won't buy

Not surprisingly, there is a strong correlation between proficiency in English and frequency of visits to English-only sites. Those with no or little English spend most or all of their time on sites in their own language (88.3%) but this figure drops to 60.6 per cent for those who have some English proficiency.
Just 10 per cent of those with little English make most or all of their online purchases from anglophone websites compared to 37 percent of English-speaking consumers. Even for those who can read English, more than 60 per cent prefer buying from sites in their own language.
The nationalities most likely to purchase from non-English websites are the Spanish (39%), the Chinese (34%) and the Turkish (29%) while the least likely nationalities are the French (14%) and the Russians (16%).

Own language matters more for complex and expensive products

Local language information is critical when purchasing financial, travel and other services with complicated terms and conditions.
The top five product categories for which is it important to have own language information are banking and financial services, travel and entertainment, pharmaceutical and beauty products, consumer electronics, and computer hardware and software.

Brands matter

Nearly two thirds (61.8%) would purchase a global brand without own-language product information in preference to a little-known brand with own language communication. The Chinese (75.1%) and the Turkish (72.3%) are the most influenced by brand power while the Germans (47.5%) and the Japanese (48.2%) are least influenced.

Any translation is better than none - except for the Chinese and Spanish

Six out of ten of those with little English (60.3%) preferred poor translation from English into their local language than none at all.
The top three markets with the lowest acceptance of English-only communication are France, Germany and Japan.
However, only a quarter of Chinese and Spanish would prefer to have local language content instead of English even it was of poor quality.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Gordon Husbands, Worldwide VP Sales & Marketing Worldwide at Wordbank, said, “The overall message is clear and unambiguous and can no longer be ignored by any company seriously aiming to do business over the Internet. What is most significant, in terms of untapped opportunity, is that a large proportion of consumers in Turkey and China are so desperate for products that they not only actively consider buying from English-only sites but also resort to using Machine Translation to help them to do so”. “What sane global marketer can afford to ignore three quarters of their potential market in the face of unequivocal evidence that consumers are so much more willing to purchased from localized websites?”

Lead analyst on the report, Don DePalma of Common Sense Advisory, added: “Many firms still debate whether it makes business sense for them to globalize their online marketing, online commerce sites and call centres. There is a long-standing assumption that enough people on the web feel comfortable using English, especially when buying high-tech or expensive products but this study strongly refutes this”.

Who should read the report?

Organizations doing business internationally; interested in building a business case for website globalization, targeted marketing, and product localization; or providing the tools and services for e-commerce will benefit from downloading the report.

The eight-nation survey, which included Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Spain, and Turkey, was completed in July and August 2006 by a company specializing in consumer panels around the world. All surveys were conducted in the official language of each country.

To find out more about the survey results, particularly how they vary across the key economies included in the survey, either register here to receive the report or email study06@wordbank.com