Tips for Tailoring Your BigCommerce Store for Global Shoppers

This article outlines key tips and best practices for tailoring your BigCommerce store for global shoppers. We’ll explore essential elements like localization, payment methods, taxes and duties, website speed and performance, cultural sensitivities, analytics, and comprehensive testing. Following these tips can help you break into new geographical markets and grow your global customer base.

Adapting your BigCommerce store for international customers starts with localization to ensure information displays properly in different languages, formats, and currencies tailored to each region.

Offer multi-language support by translating product descriptions, FAQs, policies, and all website content into the native languages of your target countries. This enables customers to shop and browse in a language they are comfortable with.

Visual presentation greatly impacts user experience. Customize images, icons, colors, symbols, layouts, and themes to resonate with the cultural preferences of each target market.

Enable the multi-currency feature in BigCommerce to display pricing in the monetary units of your choice like Euros, Pounds, Dollars, and Yen. This saves global customers the effort of converting prices.

Data formats like date, address, phone number, and measurement units. vary by country. Display information aligned to localization standards across all touchpoints of the customer journey.

Offering preferred local payment methods is crucial for converting international customers.

Activate payment platforms popular in target regions like PayPal, Alipay, iDEAL, etc. Provide options for credit/debit cards, net banking, e-wallets, and cash on delivery.

Consider offering guest checkouts to regions with lower e-commerce adoption. Reduce checkout friction by minimizing form fields and using autofill wherever possible.

Show prices, taxes, duties, discounts, and total order values in local currencies throughout the checkout process for a seamless experience.

Use trust badges, seals, and certifications to emphasize security and build credibility for customers hesitant about international purchases.

Properly communicating taxes, shipping costs, and import duties influences conversion rates:

Integrate systems that automatically calculate taxes and display accurate final prices across different locations. Stay updated on international tax laws.

Show shipping rates per location using pre-defined tables, integrations with carriers, or real-time calculators. Provide delivery timelines per region.

Display notifications about additional customs duties, import taxes, etc. applicable on international orders with estimated amounts wherever possible.

Streamline shipping with tools that print customs forms, and commercial invoices, generate packing slips, and enable dropshipping. Provide shipment tracking facility.

Ensuring a fast, responsive, and glitch-free experience is vital for cross-border e-commerce:

Optimize pages for speed by minimizing HTTP requests, enabling compression, and using a content delivery network. This enhances engagement across varying internet speeds globally.

Adopt responsive templates that automatically adapt to different devices and screen sizes. This makes shopping seamless for customers on mobile or tablets with minimal pinch/zoom.

Rigorously test site functionality across commonly used browsers in target countries to address bugs or display issues early. Meet global browser preferences.

Use analytics to gain visibility into international traffic visiting your store. Track metrics across locations to identify regional consumer behavior and fine-tune business decisions.

Understanding cultural norms and tailoring product assortments accordingly is key to succeeding globally:

Curate products suited to local market preferences like sizing, colors, and styles. Adapt imagery and messaging to resonate better with target country audiences.

Be mindful of cultural traditions, customs, beliefs, color symbolism, gestures, and etiquette. to avoid offending customers when conceptualizing designs, content strategy, and advertisements.

Create dedicated pages highlighting region-specific catalogs, promotions, and payment methods to provide relevant information to international visitors.

Optimize pages in search engines per country using keywords in different languages and bilingual titles, and meta descriptions. Understand location-specific ranking signals.

After globalizing the BigCommerce store, rigorous testing is imperative before launch:

Perform comprehensive tests by simulating end-to-end purchase flows across currencies, payment methods, and shipping options. Verify all use cases.

Test consistency of UI elements, layouts, forms etc. across popular browsers. Confirm site looks and functions correctly everywhere.

Assess site speed metrics across locations using online tools to gauge real-world international website performance and improve if needed.

Carefully review translated content, localized elements, and currency formatting. to catch typos, disjointed sentence structures, and overlapping UI that get overlooked.

The tips above encompass key aspects that merchants must address to succeed globally on BigCommerce. Localizing the shopping experience builds trust and engagement with international customers. Supporting preferred payment methods, efficiently handling taxes and shipping while optimizing for performance streamlines cross-border transactions. Respecting cultural nuances also promotes conversion. Rigorously testing before launch prepares your website to smoothly handle international traffic.

By investing efforts into these areas, retailers can pave the way for their BigCommerce stores to thrive across borders. The undertaking requires significant strategic planning but holds tremendous potential for business growth. Embracing these best practices can help your brand connect with more customers worldwide.