Localization

Globalize your business by localizing your site and improving the international shopping experience. 

We understand not everyone has the budget to localize and translate their entire website, but Zonos can provide you with some easy and excellent ways to provide the best possible international selling and shopping experience.

Our localization features can help improve order conversion by giving your customers the confidence to complete their purchases at checkout.

Below are ways we can help localize the international shopping experience with Zonos Checkout.

Zonos Hello

Zonos Hello comes included with Checkout to create an optimal, localized shopping experience for your international customers. When an international shopper outside your domestic country arrives on your website, Hello is triggered and displayed to welcome them to your site. Hello immediately sets the shopper’s expectations that they are buying from a website that does business internationally.

Features

• Welcome international customers to your store in their native language.
• Enable currency conversion throughout your site.
• Display duty and tax estimates in their local currency.
• Localize the messaging inside Hello.
• Personalize the shopper experience.
• Eliminate customer anxiety toward hidden international fees.

Shopping and payment in local currency

PayPal’s Cross-Border Consumer Research asked international customers “Which, if any, of the following would make you more likely to buy from a website in another country?” Their answers revealed that currency was a major factor

To address this issue, Zonos supports currency conversion for 142 different currencies around the world. Localizing currency is not just simply changing the currency code; this also involves using the correct fractional separator and currency symbol in the right locations.

For example:

• The Japan Yen is a zero-decimal currency.

  • 50.00 USD is converted to ¥6767 (December 2022) without the fractional decimal.

Our Zonos Payments also offer a variety of local payment options, including Apple Pay, PayPal Express, and more. For example, over a quarter of online payments are completed via Apple Pay in the UK. So, offering Apple Pay and other payment method options can have an influential impact on your sales.

Dynamic address fields

With the Zonos API and Checkout, you can localize address fields specific to your international customer’s location. This means you can hide fields like postal codes for countries that do not use postal codes. The correct terminology will also be used for the shipping label based on the location.

Below are a few examples of different shipping labels that different countries use. In some cases, a city, state, or postal code is not used. Also, note how their postal code field is validated. Any field in red indicates their label differs from the standard label, e.g. the United States ZIP CODE is in red because it differs from the norm.

Shipping methods

Zonos allows you to describe the shipping service level at checkout differently for each individual country if you wish to do so. Localizing shipping methods can prove to be powerful and give the customer peace of mind, knowing which carrier will be delivering the package.

For instance:

• If you use DHL eCommerce International Mail service, and Canada Post does the final mile of delivery in Canada, you can set your shipping description inside of Zonos to say “Canada Post 4-14 Days” on your checkout instead of “DHL eCommerce International Mail”.

Custom messaging

Creating custom messages at checkout is an excellent way to give additional, important information specific to the customer’s location.

For example:

• Chinese New Year usually falls around late January or early February. If a customer is checking out right before this major holiday, Zonos Checkout can set a message notifying shoppers that there may be slower service levels to China due to the high traffic.

  • The message may look similar to the following: “This shipping service can take 1-3 weeks for delivery. Due to the Chinese New Year, your order may not arrive until after the holiday when courier services resume delivery.”

With Checkout, you also have the ability to message this information in simplified or traditional Chinese.

Email communications

If you want repeat international customers, emails reminding them of past purchases from your website or abandoned cart recovery emails can encourage customers to buy from your site again.

Zonos’ order confirmation, abandoned cart, shipping, and email notifications can all be translated and localized for international shoppers.

Supported languages

Zonos supports the following languages within our localization service, which cover the primary languages for 152 different countries. 95.6% of all orders processed by Zonos ship to a country with a primary language supported by our localization service.

Next steps

• International Conversion - Learn how different cross-border elements can impact conversion.
• Zonos Checkout - Learn how Checkout can be integrated into your ecommerce platform and all the features it has to offer.
• International Payments - Learn how Zonos Payments supports the processing of international payments in 142 different currencies.

Related Decoder Guides

• Supported currencies - View the list of currencies supported by Zonos.
• Landed Cost - Learn how Zonos simplifies landed cost calculations.
• Shipment rating - Read about how Zonos calculates international shipping rates.
• International shipping carriers - View their services and offerings.

FAQ

Does Zonos offer full website translation?

No, Zonos does not translate your entire website. We only offer localization services for at checkout, order completion pages, email order confirmations, abandoned cart recovery emails, currency conversion, and duty & tax information and messaging inside Zonos Hello.