How to redesign your e-commerce site: steps for international success
Do very few people visit your website? Is the bounce rate too high? Or maybe you just want to think bigger? No matter the reason behind it, a website redesign is the perfect strategy to improve a site’s SEO, we suggest you do it every 2 or 3 years. But how do you redesign your e-commerce site for international success?
1. Put together your e-commerce site’s graphic chart
Most graphic charts have three elements: logo, colours and fonts. This winning combination gives a brand an unforgettable visual identity.
Logo
A comprehensive graphic chart sets out the designs and versions for a company’s logo. You can create a logo without a background to subtly integrate it into your Instagram content.
Your graphic chart must also include usage rights for the logo. For example, you can make it free to access and reuse any which way, you can even limit its use to specific scenarios. Whatever you decide, the rules must be included in your graphic chart.
Colours
You need to set out all the colours used on your e-commerce site as well as in paper and online communications. In general, colours are presented as a palette in a graphic chart, creating, for example, pale and dark palettes.
Fonts
You should lay out your business fonts as there may be one or more of these and they should be shown in all formats: normal, italic, bold, etc.
For a professional graphic chart, we suggest you use a graphic designer, artistic director or web designer.
2. Manage the UX
The User Experience (UX) on an e-commerce site includes all the stages in the buyer journey from homepage to purchase confirmation email. For example, if someone sees a pop-up that says “10% off your first order”, this is part of the UX.
The user experience can truly pay off. And it should be optimised for PC and smartphones. 52% of consumers say a bad mobile experience puts them off engaging with a brand.
3. Optimise your site for mobile devices
Before optimising your e-commerce site for mobile devices, use your phone to test it out. This way, you’ll see the potential issues and areas for improvement.
You can then go through the following stages of optimisation:
- Add CSS files to format your e-commerce site’s style
- Choose responsive themes and plug-ins
- Test the main features and navigation on your mobile site
- Improve your site loading times
- Optimise the size of your pop-ups for the mobile format (e.g., make sure they are easy to close on a phone)
Another option (that’s more expensive but also more effective) is to create a mobile app, creating a mobile app has a lot of benefits. For example, you can send push notifications to clients so they can buy at the lowest price or preview your new collection.
4. Translate your content into multiple languages
If you redesign your e-commerce site for international success, you should include a translation stage. Select your target languages based on the countries where you want to expand.
Also make sure your website translation takes into account cultural specifics and is tailored to readers in different countries. This isn’t always easy! Did you know, for example, that the Spanish and the Mexicans speak the same language but use very different everyday phrases?
For a brilliant translation of your e-commerce site, we suggest you use specialist translators. TextMaster translates over 300 languages pairs across 50 fields of expertise.
5. Increase the number of payment methods you offer
By offering multiple payment methods on your e-commerce site, you’ll keep all your users happy. As we say in our comprehensive guide, 82% of internet users abandon their basket if their preferred payment method is absent.
Ask yourself which payment method is most popular in the nation you’re targeting – for each and every country. This way, you won’t disappoint any users and will also increase your average basket.
6. Provide multilingual FAQs and/or customer service
Customer service is a key stage in the client journey, no matter the language. Before and after purchasing, consumers may have questions about a product or the buying process. For example, they may want to return or exchange an item for different reasons.
International e-commerce sites therefore need to offer multilingual client support. Otherwise, they may lose most clients, who will turn to a competitor who does offer an after-sales service in their native language.
Providing customer services in multiple languages is an excellent strategy to win the loyalty of your international clients, but it’s something few businesses do.
Even if you don’t have the budget to hire customer services staff of different nationalities, you can at least provide multilingual FAQs. FAQs are a powerful marketing tool that enables you to answer all your clients’ questions in a single place.
7. Make it easy to change your e-commerce site’s language
When you redesign your e-commerce site for international success, you need to make sure of one thing: it should be possible to change your e-commerce site’s language at a click on both the web and mobile versions. At TextMaster, we’ve put a globe in the top right of our website. Users can hover over the icon and choose their preferred language. But you could also have flags to make changing language easier.
Good to know: user interface personalisation trackers enable you to automatically set the language based on the user’s country.
How to redesign your e-commerce site for an international launch: summary
Here is a quick run through the 7 steps needed to successfully redesign your e-commerce site:
- Put together your graphic chart
- Manage the UX
- Optimise your site for mobiles
- Translate your content into multiple languages
- Increase your payment methods
- Provide multilingual FAQs and/or customer service
- Make it easy to change your e-commerce site’s language
Want to boost your e-commerce sales? We have 7 top tips to turbocharge your online sales over the summer.
If you’re looking for professional translators to translate your site, you’ll find them here.
