Businesses in the UK are failing to take full advantage of global opportunities in digital markets, research by Search Laboratory finds. This is holding companies back from tapping into new revenue streams and preventing full engagement with a global market.
62% of UK businesses believe they are missing opportunities in the global ecommerce market but, despite this, many are failing to properly optimise their business offering in international markets.
The findings, released in an industry whitepaper, are drawn from a survey of 500 top business decision makers in the UK and focus around areas of potential improvement in the ecommerce market.
The whitepaper found that 52% of the businesses surveyed are attempting to trade internationally but are falling short of establishing a fully optimised presence in their target markets.
Despite 83% of businesses stating that online offerings have been important to their overseas growth, one area they are failing to meet the needs of international markets is in the languages used to display their products, with only 33% of those trading digitally abroad doing so in the local language.
Over half (67%) are attempting to trade internationally but only use English and only have one central website, which can make the buying experience confusing or unfeasible for international shoppers.
However, it appears that the message that tailored, highly-targeted offerings for international customers has got through to many business owners as 47% said their focus in the next two years would be on site localisation.
Ian Harris, CEO at Search Laboratory, said ‘if businesses are going to truly take hold of the huge opportunities available in the global ecommerce market, they’re going to have to treat their international offerings with as much care and attention as they do their UK business. It’s not enough to roughly translate a clone of your UK site – you need to research your audience’s differences and tailor it specifically to them”.
The whitepaper is available to view and download here: https://www.searchlaboratory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/A-guide-to-successfully-planning-and-managing-international-digital-marketing-campaigns1.pdf
