Offers and discounts can significantly increase the sale of a product on an online platform. To avail such promotional offers, the customers must be notified about those in the first place. However, in India, most offers and discount messages are conveyed to the masses in English, even though the apps and websites are available in multiple Indian languages. Let’s know how localization of sales promotions (offers, discount coupons, promo codes, cashback etc.) can impact a company’s growth in India.
India runs on offers. According to James Cash Penney, the renowned American entrepreneur, people are willing to spend more money during sales rather than having low prices throughout the year. And when it comes to the Indian market, a discount doubles the sale of a product.
During Big Billion Day Sale offered by Indian e-retail giant Flipkart and Great Indian Sale conducted by Amazon, the companies have seen a giant leap in the number of buyers. As stated in a report published by Business Today, in 2018, Flipkart Big Billion Days’ sale of 1 million smartphones brought the company Rs 1,000 crore in an hour. In that same year, Amazon India’s country head Amit Agarwal has also reported that 80% of the customers of Great Indian Sale were from lower tier cities who do not feel comfortable with English contents.
According to a report, over 64% of online consumers wait to purchase things until they are on sale. On the other hand, 59% of customers look for some promo codes before purchasing anything online. Sales promotions deeply affect consumer behaviour and hence, it is crucial to make sure that your customers are regularly updated about the ongoing or upcoming discounts and offers in their preferred language.
Whether it is a cashback offer, promo code or a discount coupon – if the offer is not meaningfully conveyed to the target customers, it will have no impact. Google KPMG report has stated that 68% of Indians rely on Indic language content more than English. Even today, when language localization has become almost the norm for every business in India, messages related to offers and discounts shared through multiple channels like SMS, emails, push notifications and social media are still in English.
Offers on Traditional Media vs Digital Media:
Disseminating offers and discounts through digital media in order to increase conversion rate is an essential part of digital marketing. But what if half of these sales promotions which are circulated through digital media are not understood by majority of Indian consumers? Isn’t that a wasted effort or a missed opportunity? Well, there is a solution to it – localization of online sales promotions to cater to your multilingual user-base. This will help you increase user-engagement and in turn boost conversion rate.
We can see multilingual advertisements on television. TV commercials are localized to reach the highest number of multilingual target audience. Printed ads are also available in multiple Indian languages as per locations. Whether it is a newspaper ad, hoarding or pamphlet, no matter in what form, localization of printed ads is quite common in India. But when it comes to digital advertisements and sales promotions, the amount of localized content is quite low.
Personalized Addressing to Local Language Speaking Consumers:
There are several platforms that record the usage patterns of their users and thus collect a huge amount of information. By using this information, companies create tailored and personalized offers for different groups of customers. If a company’s majority of consumers are Indian, then sending those offers and discount messages in English will not be a fruitful advertisement. Not just translation, transliteration too has been playing a major role in advertisements. India being a culturally and linguistically diverse country can only be covered through localization. Where majority of Indians cannot understand English, how can sales promotions in English perform well?
Low Cost Step to Boost Conversion Rate:
With localization, it is easier to design templates for offers in local languages and leave some space for editing the details and particulars each time the offer is renewed. This cost-effective and low effort step can have massive benefits for companies.
The Importance of Cross Communication Localization:
It is important to enable cross communication localization since customers interact through multiple channels and hence offers are communicated through different mediums. Information related to an offer or discount is circulated via multiple channels, such as, emails, SMS, push notifications. If all these cross communications are localized, it will be easier to grab the attention of your target audience and convey the message effectively to them.
Conclusion:
Since, communication is extremely important for any company to create a steady and solid customer base and engage the existing user-base, it is also crucial to make sure that proper measures have been taken to make these communications smooth. In India, where majority of consumers feel free to communicate in their local languages, localization is the key to reach out to masses.
