Consumers Prefer National Language Over English

A research report entitled 'Can’t Read, Won’t Buy' has found that global online buying preferences are heavily influenced by local language use. Common Sense Advisory, the firm that conducted the study, analyzed over 2,400 consumers in Europe, Asia and South America, focusing on language use by consumers and brand marketers and its impact on buying decisions.

by Angelique van Engelen

Common Sense Advisory.com researched nationality, English language proficiency, brand and people’s ability to conduct transactions in a foreign currency. The research was sponsored by Wordbank, Lionbridge, and Idiom Technologies, and covered eight countries in total.

Common Sense's aim is to provide businesses conducting global online marketing campaigns with information to assess whether it makes business sense for them to globalize their campaigns, online commerce sites, and call centers. “There is a longstanding assumption that enough people on the web feel comfortable using English, especially when buying high-tech or expensive products. Nonetheless, research dating back to 1998 indicates a high propensity for people to buy in their own language. But until now, there has been no large-scale behavioral study of consumers to validate this preference,” says a spokesman at Common Sense.

The study points out that more than half (52.4%) of consumers of all language abilities buy only at websites where information is presented in their own language. The report also reveals that nationality increases the demand for local-language content in online transactions. French, Japanese and Russian nationals are especially eager to conduct buying transactions in their local language.

The report shows that people who are least proficient in English are more likely to read information about products in their own language (88.3%). Just 10% of low-or-no English proficiency buy their wares on Anglophone websites, compared to 37% of their more fluent English speaking fellow countrymen.

When language proficiency declines, people’s brand awareness impacts buying decisions more. Among the no-or-low English respondents, 55.9% agreed or strongly agreed that they valued a global brand more than language. For those able to deal with English, 64.1% attached more worth to the global brand than to the lesser but local brand. Concurrently, the study also found that most of the respondents would pay more for products with information in their own language.

Tags: behavioral targeting, branding, Europe, language, localized content, online marketing, online sales