David Cole (pictured), MD of online research company fast.MAP, analyses French and English data from a new GMA survey.
Maybe it’s because we’re an island race that the British have parochial online buying habits. The French, for example, are twice as likely to buy sans frontiers.
But new research reveals it’s the British aversion to foreign languages which is a more likely cause.
In mid-February, the GMA commissioned fast.MAP to ask panels of 550 French and 1,120 UK adults (each panel demographically representative of the country) about their online buying habits.
While both nations have enthusiastically embraced online purchase, the French are far more likely to buy from other countries – probably because they are also twice as likely to speak the language. Click here to view/download the chart.
While almost half of the French online buyers (47%) made cross-border purchases in the last year, in the UK only a quarter (22%) did so. Of these, 31% of the French, but only 17% of the British spoke the language of the country they bought from.
Two in 5 French buyers (38%) and 7 in 10 of the British (70%) bought these imported goods from a website translated into their own language, showing the importance of investment in multi-language website options to companies wishing to tap into foreign markets (especially those wishing to sell into the UK). Click here for the chart.
The French were also twice as likely to use – and have no problem using – online translation software (13% v 6%). And although twice as many of the French encountered problems using this software (5% v 2%), this is as expected since twice as many were using them.
The French were also twice as likely to enlist the aid of a bilingual friend (4% v 2%), but only one in 100 of either nationality was helped linguistically by the company they were buying from.
The French are to be congratulated on their persistence, since 8% of those who experienced language problems managed to complete the transactions compared with only 3% of the British.
French cross-border buyers are also far more open to a wide variety of sourcing routes than the British. Fewer than 1 in 10 British buyers use a wide mix of multi-national sourcing methods, while the French are more than twice as likely to use several.
In fact, the British seldom stray outside of four main sourcing channels – auction site; search engine; company website; and email. This implies that for those selling into the UK, concentration on these media would be cost-effective, while those selling into France would be wise to consider a wider mix of promotional media. (Chart )
Two in 5 UK buyers heard about foreign goods and services via auction sites (UK 39%; F17%). The second largest UK influence search engines, was by far the most important source route in France (UK 36%; 49% F).
Second most prevalent in France was company websites (F 27%: UK 23%) followed by email (F 26%; UK 16%), while 22% of French and 7% of British buyers of foreign goods used comparison websites.
Between one and two in ten French buyers also used: comparison websites (22%); online ads (13%); social network sites (13%); TV and radio ads (12%); print ads (10%); and exhibitions (9%).
To download a variety of fast.MAP/ DMA/ IPM/ IoF annual marketing/ fundraising tracking studies, click here.
