Standardization Versus Localization on the Web

The debate over the appropriateness of standardization versus localization in international marketing continues to receive attention. The debate is complicated in the context of the World Wide Web as it is a global communication medium where technology makes mass customization or adaptation possible, while forces of global integration and the emergence of transnational web style (Sackmary and Scalia 1998) justify the use of a standardized web marketing and communication strategy.

The advocates of the standardization approach argue that as technology develops and is globally dispersed, cultural distance will be minimized, leading to convergence of national cultures into a homogenous global culture. On the other hand, there are a number of studies (including one discussed below) in support of customizing web sites to specific markets across the world. Research shows that consumers prefer to shop and interact on sites that are specially designed for them in their local language (Singh, Furrer, and Massimilaino 2004). More than 75% of Chinese and Korean online shoppers prefer web sites in Mandarin and Korean, respectively (Ferranti 1999). Similarly, the French and Spanish have a strong preference for sites in their local languages (Lynch, Kent, and Srinivasan 2001).

In general, online users feel more at ease when browsing web pages in their local languages. A survey by Forrester Research confirms that non-English-speaking users stay twice as long on localized Web sites as they do on English-only Web sites, and business users are three times more likely to make purchases online when addressed in their local language (www.forrester.com). Forrester Research also concludes that customer service costs drop when instructions are available in local languages. Several studies (Luna, Peracchio, and de Juan 2002; Simon 2001; Singh et al. 2004) confirm that country-specific Web content enhances usability, reach and Web site interactivity, leading to more Web traffic and business activity on the Web. And, as seen next, our research indicates the same: Web sites that are customized for specific countries enjoy strong advantages compared with those that are not.

Our study focused on Web sites and consumers from five countries: Italy, India, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. Web sites from these countries were sampled and evaluated by respondents according to a variety of criteria. The criteria measure adaptation to countries and are evaluated on a scale of 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). They focus on whether web sites reflect a specific country’s culture, whether they have been specifically developed for a given country, whether they make individuals culturally-comfortable, and whether the images, colors, information, symbols are reflective of a specific country.

The average scores (across the criteria) were calculated for each Web site, and using percentiles, Web sites for each country were categorized as High, Medium, or Low in adaptation. A total of 627 completed questionnaires were used in the analysis. As the results in Table 1-1 below indicate, attitudes toward the Web site and purchase intention were strongly in favor of highly adapted Web sites.

Thus, it is evident that customizing Web sites for diverse, global customers is important. If a company does not provide a customized Web site, it is essentially expecting its potential customers from various parts of the world to adapt to it – rather than vice-versa. Obviously, such a strategy is fraught with risk as dissatisfied customers are unlikely to become loyal customers and are more likely to turn to competitors whose Web sites are more in tune with their needs.

The State of Web Site Customization

Today, the process of developing customized global Web sites is termed Web site globalization, which in turn includes two complementary processes: Web site internationalization and Web site localization. Together, they address issues that go beyond language translation to include the need to incorporate local date, time, purchase order, zip codes, currency calculators, and a plethora of icons and features to make Web sites understandable and readable by international consumers.

In technical terms, Web site internationalization is the process through which back-end technologies are used to create modular, extendible and accessible global Web site templates that support front-end customization. Web site localization is the process of the front-end customization, whereby Web sites are adapted to meet the needs of a specific international target market (Singh and Boughton 2004). As part of Web site localization, there have been some efforts to address cultural issues of the relevant target customers. However, our experience with these efforts is that they tend not to be based on sound theory and careful research. As such, they do not accomplish true cultural customization; and more to the point, they generally do not even accomplish the fundamentals of Web site internationalization and localization, which are both required for successful cultural customization.

Web site internationalization, according to LISA, should be culturally and technically “neutral,” making a Web site amenable for localization for specific target markets. These target markets are typically countries; however, in some instances, countries may not be the best basis for localization. Sometimes it would be more appropriate to use “locales” – defined as a language-country combination, such as French-Canada, English-Canada, German-Switzerland, and French-Switzerland (Yunker 2003).

A sound web site globalization effort, comprised of internationalization and localization, is needed to ensure successful cultural customization.

A Classification of Web Sites

To evaluate the state of Web site globalization across countries and industries, we offer a classification system based on the recent literature on e-commerce globalization (Singh and Boughton 2004). Web site globalization can be studied at two levels: the back-end level and the front-end level. The back-end level involves how global templates are designed; the front-end level can be studied in terms of global or local features explicitly exhibited on Web sites. These features can include the presence or absence of a language option, machine translation versus human translation of the Web pages and/ or the display of a country-specific Web sites option on the home page.

We propose five categories of Web site globalization using the front-end criteria:

1. Standardized Web Sites
2. Semi-localized Web Sites
3. Localized Web Sites
4. Highly Localized Web Sites
5. Culturally Customized Web Sites

Standardized Web Sites

These sites have the same Web content for both domestic and international users. There is no effort made to reach out to international consumers in terms of translation, internationalization or localization.

Example of a Standardized Web Site: www.Tyco.com

Tyco International, Ltd. boasts of being a truly international company with business in over 100 countries. Tyco employs approximately 100,000 people, and its products span the fields of security and safety, medical care, plastics and adhesives, electronics, and engineered products. Yet it only offers one, standardized Web site in English for all of its customers (Figures 1-1 and 1-2).

Figure 1-1 Figure 1-2

Semi-localized Web Sites

These Web sites provide contact information about foreign subsidiaries; little else is offered to address the needs of their international customers.

Example of a Semi-localized Web Site: www.Gap.com

Founded in 1969 in San Francisco, Gap Inc. is one of the world’s largest retailers with over 4,100 stores in 3,000 locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Japan and Germany. Surprisingly, this company does little to address the needs of their Japanese, French or German online customers. It has one central U.S. web site for all its customers, both U.S. and international. Gap has not been proactive in its Web site globalization efforts and may find some challenges when it eventually launches international Web sites. For example, if you type www.gap.fr you will not be directed to Gap’s Web site in France, but to a local BMW dealer! A Japanese customer looking for a store in Tokyo, for example, must understand English before he can find the Web page that directs customers to various country Web sites, which are again in English. The page that has the information on Gap stores in Tokyo is again in English (Figures 1-3 and 1-4).

Figure 1-3 Figure 1-4

Localized Web Sites

These Web sites offer country-specific Web pages with translation, wherever relevant.

Example of a Localized Web Site: www.Dell.com

Dell is the world’s leading computer systems company. According to the company, they “design, build, and customize products and services to satisfy a range of customer requirements. From the server, storage and professional services needs of the largest global corporations to those consumers at home.” The company does business directly with customers and has production facilities in North and South America, Asia and Europe. Dell’s Web site provides country-specific Web pages, along with translation into the relevant language, wherever necessary (Figures 1-5 and 1-6).

Figure 1-5 Figure 1-6

Highly Localized Web Sites

These Web sites offer country-specific URLs with translations wherever relevant, and include relatively high levels of localization in terms of country-specific information, time, date, zip code, number formats, and so on.

Example of a Highly Localized Web Site: www.Amazon.com

Amazon, which started as an online bookstore, has diversified into other areas such as apparel, music, health and beauty products, electronics and office supplies, etc. (Figure 1-7). The company’s vision is “to be earth's most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” The company offers unique Web sites for Japan (www.Amazon.jp), Germany (www.Amazon.de), Canada (www.Amazon.ca), the United Kingdom (www.Amazon.co.uk) and France (www.Amazon.fr) (Figure 1-8).

Figure 1-7 Figure 1-8

Culturally Customized Web Sites

These Web sites exhibit designs that reflect a complete “immersion” in the culture of the target market. A comprehensive cultural customization will reflect three levels of cultural adaptation: perception, symbolism, and behavior (see Chapter 2 and others in the book).

Example: No Web site of which we are aware (see survey in our book) qualifies for this category.

One Web site that comes close, however, is www.Ikea.com. Ikea is the low-price, global furnishing giant that operates in over 30 countries. The Ikea country-language pages are a good attempt at cultural customization (Figures 1-9 and 1-10). For example, their Saudi Arabian Web site has the scroll-bar on the left, reflecting the spatial orientation of perception in Saudi culture.

Figure 1-9 Figure 1-10

Web Site Customization: A Study

The classification described in the previous section was used to measure the extent of Web site globalization by Forbes 900 companies. Of the 900 companies, only 598 companies were found to target international customers (Singh and Boughton, 2004). This sample comprised 307 U.S. companies, 164 European companies and 127 companies from Asia-Pacific. Less than half the Web sites (255) fell in the localized and highly localized categories under the classification scheme, with none qualifying as culturally customized. Among the 307 U.S. Web sites, 28.7% qualified for the highly localized category, while 36% were standardized or semi-localized.

A total of 13 countries in Europe were represented in the sample of 165 European Web sites. The percentage of highly localized was lower than that of the United States, at 23.2%. Out of the total 127 company Web sites analyzed for Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, Japan and South Korea), 19% qualified as highly localized and 25% as standardized (see Table 1-2).

This study indicates that Web site globalization has a long way to go, with almost 57% of company Web sites categorized as not localized. More relevant, none of the Web sites in our study qualified as culturally customized. At present, there is no theoretically sound framework available for Web designers to approach cultural customization of Web sites—a possible reason why we did not see culturally customized Web sites in our study.

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Nitish Singh, Ph.D. is Associate Professor at California State University, Chico in the U.S. He is widely published in the areas of e-commerce, e-marketing and cross-cultural consumer behavior. He teaches and consults in e-marketing and related areas and can be reached at ncsingh@exchange.csuchico.edu.

Arun Pereira, Ph.D. is Associate Professor at Saint Louis University in the U.S. His research, teaching and consulting are in the areas of new product management, marketing decision-making and marketing research. Pereira can be reached at Pereira_arun@yahoo.com.