How to sell online in France

6 tips for companies wanting to make it big in the French market

France is one of the world’s largest e-commerce markets. In 2019, it ranked as the sixth-biggest e-commerce market in the world, valued at $43 billion. Selling online may be also a good first step to test the waters before launching a full-fledged branch for your brand in one or more French cities. French customers are technically savvy and benefit on the whole from a high-speed internet connection. Like everywhere else, online shopping has become the new normal since 2020. There are, however, some important points you should bear in mind if you want to effectively sell online in France:

You have to sell to the French in French

Don’t get influenced by your impressions and experience of France as a tourist, where everyone tried to speak to you in… your language. You were a customer then. When the French are customers, they want to read content, product descriptions, and terms of contract in French. People prefer to shop in their mother tongue, even if they know another language (and yes, there are many who speak excellent English). This attitude is largely in line with the “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” market analysis published by CSA Research. The report highlights the importance of “engaging the global audience with a full language experience that conveys their brand, reputation, and trustworthiness”.

Clarity and transparency

French customers appreciate respect, politeness and clear information about the products or services they are buying. You should be able to justify and rationally explain the value added of your product or service through clear description. The pure commercial praise is not enough.

Pricing

French customers are not necessarily bargain hunters. They don’t mind paying a higher price if the quality is excellent and the perceived value is unique. There are specialized consumer protection magazines, tracking and comparing pricing and quality, and publishing consumer surveys on virtually any type of product. One of them, “60 millions de consommateurs”, even has a status of an EPIC. (Literally: “a public establishment of an industrial and commercial nature”, meaning a state-controlled entity of an industrial or commercial nature, such as research institutes and infrastructure operators.) A good review in this magazine (or in its competitor, “Que Choisir”) will boost your reputation. A bad review, or—God forbid— a label of “arnaque” (scam) can destroy it.

Be subtle about your advertising and CTA

There is a big difference in the tone of voice, and language in French advertising. CTAs tend to be more indirect and toned down. For example, we will write a contact button in a neutral form “Nous contacter” (How to get in touch), rather than “Contactez-nous!” (Get in touch!). Shouting “Buy now!” and “Click here!” at your customers can be seen as pushy and off-putting.

Security of data

Make sure that you are transparent about what you do with your customers’ data and how you store them. Offer payment options that allow them to avoid entering their credit card details in full on your website.

Provide an outstanding delivery and after-sales service

French consumers are particularly sensitive to a good after-sales customer service and appreciate a prompt and reliable delivery. Reassurance about delivery, tracking goods and receiving all the relevant information are very important in France, more so than in the UK. 85% of French consumers are happy to track every order, rather than just high-value items. In the UK it is only 60%.

Final recommendation

Final point: in case of any queries or unexpected problems you should be ready to respond in French! Speak to a native French translator, preferably resident in France, to have your website and content translated and SEO optimised for the French market. They will be aware of the latest consumer and business information at home and will be able to localise your content so that it attracts customers in France.

If you want to learn more about effective business communication in France, read my blog post Effective business communication in France.

Why should you hire a professional translator if you have bilingual staff?

I’ll be the first to admit: I have built my industry knowledge and maintained my translation skills in my in-house software development jobs. In other words, I was part of the in-house staff who spoke languages. A lot of translation work landed on my desk. However, in many cases, especially in development and testing projects, the localization of software was actually part of my job and of the project plan. And I am fully qualified to do the job. Not all testers happen to have a master’s degree in professional translation…😊. In short, I am more of an exception that confirms the rule.

So why exactly should you hire a professional to do your translation or localization work?

 

1. My employees are fully bilingual, so they can translate competently and professionally

Ask yourself this question: You learned to count at school. Does this make you an accountant? Like arithmetic, language is a tool. In translation, language is also a tool, but we don’t just speak languages. Native speakers, even if they manage to resist the influence of their host country’s culture and language, stay within the boundaries and limitations of their language. A high level of bilingualism is the most basic of the qualifications of a competent translator. Add to that mental dexterity, bicultural competence, industry expertise and strategies required to transfer meaning successfully across those boundaries.

 

2. Being a native speaker makes you fully competent in the language

Have you ever read something written by a native speaker, and it didn’t make sense? Or asked them about a rule in their language, and they just answered: “I don’t know, that’s just how it is.” We speak our native tongue organically, without studying the grammar, syntax or structure. Think of all the risks you take if you rely on a non-professional. The ability to write clearly and accurately is a prerequisite for a professional translation.

 

3. Do you really need to be certified to do a translation job?

You need a certification to be a plumber, electrician or carpenter. So why are you ready to accept a non-professional service in translation?  Like in other trades, translators complete courses, diplomas, and university degrees during which they learn about tools, technologies, methodologies and resources necessary to perform their duties. It is doubtful that your in-house staff understand how to use some of the tools that professionals use for productivity, such as translation memory and glossaries. As a result, you will end up with a subpar product.

 

4. My bilingual staff can translate that marketing flyer “real fast” and won’t cost me anything

When you take your bilingual staff away from their primary responsibilities and ask them to translate, you’re distracting them from their actual job. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, employees can experience 50-60 interruptions each day. That’s an interruption every 8 minutes. After each interruption, it can take an employee 23 minutes to return to his or her original task, according to a study by the University of California, Irvine. The financial cost to these distractions is $10,375 per person, per year, according to Harmon.ie. Distractions also take their toll on your employees’ engagement and effectiveness. Harmon.ie’s research shows that 33% of employees had difficulty working and producing because of workplace distractions, and 25% had no time to think deeply or creatively as a result. One in five workers found that distractions caused information overload, and 1 in 10 missed deadlines because of them. So, before you ask a bilingual employee to “just” translate that flyer “real fast,” ask yourself what unaccounted costs you may be incurring.

 

5. How about a quick review?

Sometimes, in-house staff are asked to review a translation completed by a professional. While your bilingual employees may have grown up speaking a language at home, that doesn’t mean they have the same linguistic expertise to understand specific grammar or cultural conventions. Therefore, their edits or suggestions may actually hurt the accuracy of the translation created by a professional linguist. Once again, you are wasting resources on something that’s neither their job, nor their priority.

 

6. Equal opportunities for all?

Additionally, you may be creating equal opportunity and equal pay issues in your organization. You may have more than one employee with the same level of education, experience, base pay and performance, but only one receives a small bonus each month for translating documents. The other may feel treated unfairly if they didn’t receive the same opportunity.

 

So, what is stopping you from assigning the job to a professional translator? 

 

We are under pressure to keep the costs down

Because of financial constraints, some businesses or non-profits try to save money, often by asking bilingual employees to help translate various documents. By using bilingual employees to complete translation work, you expose your organization to costly mistakes. Is it really worth the risk? I know this may sound biased, coming from someone who is a professional translator, but the data speaks for itself.

Cost of translation can vary, but on average it is between 0.07-0.15 euros per word. This means that a standard, 350-word page will cost around 50 euros.

Some translators charge a minimum rate, others will offer you a more comprehensive solution that can include translation, proofreading, and testing. It is always best to ask for a free quote, which they will be happy to offer.

 

Outsourcers don’t understand our tech business

This is a common complaint, especially with large translation agencies. Their vendors can be scattered around the world and will not take time or have an opportunity to get to know your business. However, if you hire an independent translator directly, they should and will ask you for background information, existing documentation and glossaries. You can ask them directly for their credentials, quality processes and turnaround times. (Read about the essential questions to consider when hiring a professional translator here: https://edittranslations.com/what-makes-an-excellent-translator-5-traits-you-should-look-for/ ) Look for a specialist in your industry: e.g. I worked in software development teams, so I’m already up to speed with or can quickly grasp complex technical explanations of your products.

 

We need to focus on innovation

It’s good to keep everyone up to date in a fast-changing technology world, but do not neglect your brand. A professional translator will help you spread the word about your technology to foreign audiences, and this in turn will help you increase your customer base and sales.

 

Long-term gains

If you hire the same translator repeatedly, they will with time become more productive and knowledgeable of your business. We use technologies, such as terminology databases, translation memories and glossaries, which speed up our work and make it consistent by recycling previous relevant content. Meanwhile, your employees can get on with their own work!

#HireaPro

 

“Can’t read: won’t buy”: why you should localise your website

Can’t Read, Won’t Buy: 2014,” is a catchy title of a report published in April 2014 by an independent research firm Common Sense Advisory (CSA Research). The report contained findings of a survey of more than 3,000 global consumers in 10 non-Anglophone countries in Europe, Asia, and South America. Specifically, the research assessed online language preferences and their subsequent impact on purchasing decisions.

The key findings can be summarised as follows:
  • 75% of consumers say that they want the products in their native language.
  • 30% never buy at English-language sites, and another 29% rarely do.
  • Across the 10-country sample, 56% either spend more time on sites in their own language than they do in English, or boycott English-language URLs altogether.
  • Automotive and financial services are the products that consumers are least likely to buy if the website is not in their native language.
  • Exactly half would prefer that at least the navigation elements and some content appear in their language, and another 17% strongly share that preference. This finding contradicts the conventional industry wisdom that you should localize everything or nothing.

Considering these findings, Common Sense Advisory Chief Strategy Officer and founder Don DePalma concluded that “there should be no question about localizing your website and product information if you want to sell more goods or services to global customers. Localisation improves customer experience and increases engagement in the brand dialogue. It should be a rigorously planned and executed business strategy for any company looking to grow internationally.” (https://csa-research.com/More/Media/Press-Releases/ArticleID/31/Survey-of-3-000-Online-Shoppers-Across-10-Countries-Finds-that-60-Rarely-or-Never-Buy-from-English-only-Websites)

So why should you translate your website and into which languages?
1. Do you want to increase your customer base?

Clearly the statistics presented above support the need to localise your content and products. If your online presence is only in English, you are missing on over 50% of potential buyers who will never purchase from you.

2. Do you do business abroad already?

If you provide your customers with product descriptions, shipping and payment options and transact in their language, they will feel more comfortable. As a result, they will come back to you for more business because they trust you. When a site is in a language that people don’t understand, they are more likely not to trust it.

3. What is your competition doing?

If they are not doing the same (yet) you can set the standards that others will have to follow, differentiate your brand and gain precious market share before everyone else.

4. Have you examined your website analytics?

Where does the traffic come from? Have you had global visitors who did not stop and buy?

The answer to these questions will also help you establish which languages you should select for your localisation project.

5. Do you attach importance to strong SEO?

You will multiply its rich benefits if you translate your content and carefully choose SEO-rich keywords that greatly helps when global users search in their preferred languages.

6. Tempted by a free solution such as Google Translate?

A penny-pinching attitude really does not pay off here. If you read Google’s own quality guidelines (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721306?hl=en&ref_topic=6001971 ) you will see that they penalise the search engine rankings of websites that use automated content. This includes “text translated by an automated tool without human review or curation before publishing”.

Conclusion

The best way to translate a website that converts and boosts your brand is by hiring a professional experienced translator who intimately understands the language and the local culture. You will avoid developing content that appears foolish and turns the potential buyers off. The media frequently publish the localisation horror stories where lack of cultural and linguistic understanding has led to a ridiculous result. You don’t want your customers to giggle at some stunning mistakes while you claim to deliver state-of-the-art solutions. Your great products and online flagship store deserve great translations.

Why did the world laugh at the French President’s mistake?

Last year a piece of news about the French President Macron made a lot of readers giggle. The President possibly switched between French and English a bit too fast. When talking about the Australian PM’s wife, he misused the word “delicious” — délicieuse — because in French it also means “delightful”.

Question: what if a mistake like this appeared on your professional website?

After all, “delicious” is the first automatic translation of “délicieux” that comes up on Google. And if you are a bit more curious and you click on the 8 more translations that Google offers, which one would you choose?

Not only you will lose good ranking and search traffic. Chances are that visitors won’t stay on your web page too long and errors will not add to their trust.

Your website is your business card, so careful phrasing does matter. Otherwise, it will be inauthentic and ineffective for people not speaking English.

Do you want your customers to giggle at some stunning mistakes while you claim to deliver state-of-the-art solutions?

Show them you care. Great products deserve great translations.