The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/99426
INTERNET FOR BUSINESS your timelines. We want to do it all yesterday, but it needs to be right as well.��� Selling British fashion to Germany Based at Debenhams HQ in London, the German e-commerce team is led by native speaker Sarah Stott. Having a German manager who knows both the brand and the target market has been essential to establishing and maintaining a localised online store. ���I know the German market and I also know the culture,��� says Stott. ���That���s a big plus ��� just being able to see how something would be received in Germany. Why certain things would work in the UK and might not work in Germany.��� Each campaign is assessed on its own merits; sometimes UK and German promotions coincide but often debenhams.de runs its own, localised campaigns. Covering home products, gifts and toys, as well as clothing, the website nevertheless offers a restricted product range. Apart from the logistical issues of selling items such as furniture, there are differences in standard measurements, so they need to make sure that bed linen fits German requirements, for example. Tastes differ too, with bold prints selling better in the UK, so some ranges are unlikely to perform as well in Germany. Stott���s team has to be aware of everything that is going on in Germany, despite being based in the UK. ���So if it���s a lovely weekend in Berlin and actually blustering blizzards over here, we���d localise our content,��� explains Clifford-Smith. This might mean selling dresses to the Germans while promoting hats and scarves in the UK. It���s not only about choosing what to promote but also how to promote it. ���If we���re pushing dresses, we might say ���evening Vol/51 No/6 2012 dresses��� for the UK and we might say ���ball dresses��� in Germany, if we know that the school-leavers��� ball is coming up,��� explains Stott. A recent ���designer deal��� was labelled ���London Fashion Week��� for the Germans, because that was likely to grab customers��� attention while at the same time helping to establish the Debenhams brand. Selling itself as ���the British high street online���, Debenhams Direct aims to bring UK fashion to Germany, so establishing the brand is vital. On the German website, they talk a lot about who they are. ���We���ve got After the UK, Germany is the largest e-commerce market in Europe, with 41 million German customers the recognition in the UK, our customers know who we are. We don���t have that following in Germany, so we design the website in a way that ensures we���re also educating,��� says Clifford-Smith. ���We have a saying that we���re 2,010 brands under one roof. We���d never bother saying that in the UK; we don���t need to.��� For this reason, much of the German web content is original, written by Stott and her team. They have the in-house language skills to send emails, post on social media, and write features and web content in German. However, the press agency and customer IN FASHION At the launch event in Munich, models and designers strike a pose (above and left); and the International E-commerce team, including Lindsay Clifford-Smith (2nd r) and Sarah Stott (r) pause for a photo (inset) services team are based in Germany, so that they can provide a local service that meets the needs of both the customer and the company. They also work with local agencies that have in-depth knowledge of online consumer behaviour in Germany, and employ ���insight��� specialists who work directly with customers, observing the way they interact with the website. This information has enabled them to create a fully localised website. The differences are subtle but significant ��� and based entirely on customer behaviour. There is a unique sort order at the top of the homepage, for example, so that ���when the customer is buying, we���re always showing them what they want,��� says Clifford-Smith. In English, the categories start (from left to right) ���women���, ���beauty���, ���home and furniture���, with shoes listed seventh; in German you get Damen, Herren, Kinder, Schuhe��� Continual use of analytics tools enables them to further improve the website���s performance by assessing how well each element is working ��� what items are (and aren���t) clicked, how formatting changes affect consumer responses, etc. This cycle of analysis and optimisation is a familiar process for the e-commerce team, but there is a lot they have learnt from their first foreign language venture that they can take forward to future online stores. They are already working on their next foreign language website, but which language it will use is still a closely guarded secret. DECEMBER/JANUARY The Linguist 11