A shopper in Madrid finds your store and wants to know whether the jacket is waterproof and whether you ship to Spain. They could write in English, but they are not confident, and they worry about misunderstanding the answer. So they leave, and buy from a Spanish store instead.
For online stores selling across borders, language is a quiet barrier. Multilingual customer service in ecommerce sounds like a job for a larger company with staff in several countries. It does not have to be.
Why language affects sales
When shoppers ask about delivery, returns or product details, getting the answer wrong costs them money. People are more comfortable making that decision in their own language. A store that answers in their language feels more trustworthy, closer and less risky.
That matters most for presale questions, which, as explained in shoppers who ask before buying are your best customers, come from people close to buying.
Why hiring for every language rarely works
A store with customers in six countries cannot realistically hire six support staff. Freelance translators help with content but not with real-time questions. And even multilingual staff only cover their working hours, while international shoppers browse around the clock.
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Replying in the visitor's language
SpideyChat for ecommerce stores replies in the language the visitor writes in, using your existing product and policy pages. A shopper who asks in Spanish gets an answer in Spanish; a shopper who asks in German gets German. It works at any hour, which matters for customers in other time zones.
Visitor: ¿Hacen envíos a España? Assistant: Sí, enviamos a España. La entrega estándar tarda de 5 a 7 días laborables y cuesta 9,95 €. Las devoluciones se aceptan en un plazo de 30 días.
The facts come from your English shipping page; the assistant simply answers in the visitor's language.
Keeping answers accurate
Language support only helps if the underlying content is right. Make sure your delivery, returns and product pages are clear and current. Unclear source content becomes unclear answers in every language.
Which pages to translate as well
Answering in the visitor's language covers questions, but some shoppers prefer to read before asking. If most of your international traffic comes from one or two countries, translating your delivery, returns and size guide pages for those languages is worth the effort. Start with the pages that decide purchases, not your About page. Product descriptions for best sellers come next.
When a person needs to step in
Complaints and complicated problems should reach a person. Capture the conversation and note the customer's language, so whoever replies can use a translation tool or a colleague if needed. The free reply generator can help draft a careful reply. Handling problems well matters for repeat custom, as covered in ecommerce customer service mistakes that cost repeat orders.
Consistency across languages
One advantage of answering from a single source is consistency. A shopper in France and a shopper in Italy get the same policy, in their own language. That avoids the confusion that comes from different teams giving different answers, a problem that also appears during incidents, as described in status and outage questions without a flooded inbox.
For more detail on how multilingual answering works, see multilingual chatbots: how AI answers in your customers' language.
Testing it
Ask a friend or colleague who speaks another language to put your five most common questions to an assistant on your store. You can build one free from your store's address and check the answers, or read about the other features.