In the bakery business, you may have found that more than half of your success comes more from the moves you make in the back office rather than ones made in front of the oven. As time goes by, less business is walking in off the street and more is coming by way of your website and e-commerce efforts.
Whether you have great success in this may depend on whether or not you have taken the time to promote your business with a multi-lingual website to reach a linguistically diverse population. The residents of Torrance California area is multi-ethnic and multi-lingual. In addition to English, the first language of a resident of the area is likely to be Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Tagalog.
Before you make the decision to make your website multilingual, take note if any of your baked goods are particularly popular among a certain ethnicity, or if your bakery offers any traditional pastries from other countries. It is important to ensure that your multi-lingual website reflects your specific client base, and what you offer your customers.
For example, a bakery with a Japanese language website may see an increase in website traffic and business from the Japanese community, but would not likely retain that business if it does not offer traditional Japanese pastries and other baked goods. Most Japanese do not enjoy the very sweet, rich flavor of American cakes.
The Advantages of Having a Multi-lingual Website for Your Bakery
The Los Angeles South Bay neighborhoods are a very diverse area that provides rich opportunities for your baking business. In addition to traditional moneymakers such as weddings and birthdays, there is an abundance of corporate events and ethnically specific occasions such as quinceaneras that may make up a significant portion of your business when it comes to delivering personalized cakes. In this last case, the advantage of having a website that communicates with Spanish-speaking buyers in their native language is a tremendous advantage over a competitor who has an English-only website.
Here are a few advantages that you may not have thought of:
- Increased Search Engine Ranking in foreign language searches
- Higher rate of referrals and conversions from new customers
- Broader appeal for specialized regional recipes and special occasions
- Market penetration into previously under-served populations
- Ease of use for customers who may experience a significant language barrier
A Multi-language Website Multiplies Your Potential Sales
Imagine for a moment that you don’t have just one bakery company, but rather that you own three or five, all of which include employees that speak a different language and are in touch with a different culture. In essence, this is the virtual effect of having a multilingual website. This is especially true if you have an online store attached to your website that enables online ordering and/or delivery of your products. Each language that is featured is just like opening up an entirely new business that brings with it a whole new flow of business.
How a Multi-Language Website Can Outpace Your Competition
Let’s look at a scenario of a local baker wanting to expand her business. Because there is a significant population of Japanese living near her bakery, she hired a new baker who was skilled in making traditional Japanese desserts such as dorayaki, taiko manju, and castella. The response of those making walk-in purchases was good. Unfortunately, the owner did not see an increase in online sales to match what she was seeing in her store.
Her new pâtisserie suggested that they add a Japanese language website to promote the new items for holidays and special occasions. This turned out to be a very good piece of advice, as the business realized a substantial increase in ecommerce orders and even higher foot traffic at the bakery’s location. It worked out so well that she was able to expand her operation to include specialized Russian pastries as a part of her menu.
Whether you already have an ecommerce site or need to build a new one from the ground up, UmeWorks can help you create a multi-language website that can help your bakery business meet its sales goals.
