Savvy online retailers looking to attract overseas customers already know the value of offering foreign language versions of their websites. But what about social media?

Social networking sites are key marketing tools in today’s web-centric world and any e-tailer worth its salt has a Facebook profile or a Twitter feed through which they can communicate with their target audience.

It’s this social aspect that can turn online shopping into an experience akin to real shopping in bricks and mortar stores, and ultimately encourage customers to buy.

As internet psychologist Graham Jones explained, in the real world shopping is a sociable activity, often enjoyed with friends or family members. And he noted that when people shop with others, they tend to buy more than they do when they’re alone.

“This means that e-commerce operations need to find ways to increase the social aspect of what they offer online – especially as people will look for this more nowadays thanks to some retailers offering such facilities via Facebook, for instance,” he remarked.

“Also, we are going to see many more shoppers buying things via mobile devices,” he added. “For retailers that means dedicated apps so people can get exactly what they want quickly.

“Mobile websites are largely things of the past for e-commerce and don’t deserve a great deal of attention. Apps provide the convenience which online shoppers desire.”

With this in mind, doesn’t it make business sense to do more than simply cater to overseas customers’ needs with foreign language web copy? Or should ecommerce translation also be extended to cover social media?

After all, Facebook is available in more than 70 languages and at the end of December last year had 845 million monthly active users. Clearly not all of those speak English.

Twitter also offers versions of its site in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, and plans to roll out more languages in the future.

New figures showing the amount of money spent by the NHS on translation services could encourage more private sector healthcare companies to offer foreign language versions of their own websites and key documents.

According to the data, obtained by think tank 2020 Health via a Freedom of Information request, some £23 billion was spent by the health service in England last year on interpreters and written translation for patients unable to understand English.

The need was greater in some areas than in others. For example, NHS trusts in Birmingham spent a total of £4.9 million, while trusts in Manchester were also big spenders. Because of local demographics, some trusts found it necessary to translate their written material into 120 different languages.

Of course the figures have sparked debate as to whether taxpayers are getting value for money, with critics arguing that the money would be better spent on frontline patient care.

However, they certainly raise questions for companies working in the healthcare industry, where medical jargon can be difficult for anyone to understand, let alone those who speak another language.

For example, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies and even health and beauty retailers may find they are better able to communicate with their non-English speaking customers if they used the services of a website translation company.

The NHS provides translation and interpretation services in a number of ways. Local authorities offer face-to-face interpreters to help people communicate during a doctor’s appointment or hospital visit, while NHS Direct has a telephone interpreter service.

However, the NHS Choices website is not available in foreign language versions, and patients are advised to use Google Translate, which is a machine translation engine that does not generate accurate results in the same way as a human translator would.

In times of economic uncertainty seeking out new business opportunities in overseas markets may be a smart move for UK companies, and there is evidence to show that those who have dipped their toes into foreign waters are performing well as a result.

So why, according to a new survey by flexible workplace provider Regus, are only a fifth planning to start trading overseas over the next two years, even though many more of their foreign counterparts are planning to market their products and services to UK customers?

A lack of language skills may be holding them back. The survey shows that 43 per cent of UK small businesses disagree with the notion that local language fluency is key to achieving success overseas.

It’s possible that their desire to remain monolingual stems from the belief that most of their foreign business partners will be able to understand them in an age where English is the leading language of international discourse.

The study also shows that 37 per cent would not make foreign language skills a requirement for any manager who was appointed to run an overseas operation, even though this could be hampering their ability to communicate effectively.

Responding to the research, Nick Baird, chief executive of UK Trade and Investment, pointed out that there are numerous opportunities in foreign markets for businesses that are ready to seize them.

Thailand’s government, for example, is planning to spend around £27 billion on projects in the transport, education and training, water supply, public health and housing sectors, creating possible openings for UK businesses specialising in these areas.

Of course in order to put themselves forward for these opportunities, companies must be able to express their ideas and their business propositions – something that technical translation services could really help with.

Stephan Chambers from the Said Business School at the University of Oxford said that while English is almost ubiquitous in business, it’s clear that those able to communicate in languages like Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic will be at a huge advantage in an increasingly globalised world.

“Fluency in languages other than our own must help insight and understanding and, in turn, our national competitiveness.” he remarked.

For online retailers based in France, Germany, Italy or other European nations, having an English language version of their website makes economic sense, since English is the language of business across the continent.

But what about UK e-tailers? How many of these make their websites available to speakers of other languages? In a free market, surely it’s a good idea to communicate effectively with consumers right across Europe?

Perhaps many online stores presume that their foreign customers can speak and read English, so don’t need ecommerce translation services. Well they’d be wrong, according to a new study by Shlomo Weber of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Victor Ginsburgh of the Free University in Brussels.

They found that even though 90 per cent of official European Union documents are written in English, only a third of EU citizens can actually understand the language.

Their point was that because of their inability to communicate in English, the majority of people in Europe cannot access EU laws, rules, regulations and debates. But there are consequences for online retailers too.

Indeed, by providing website copy, product descriptions and ‘about us’ pages solely in English, businesses trading on the internet could be missing out on crucial sales from foreign audiences.

“Language is a proxy for engagement,” said Mr Weber. “People identify strongly with their language, which is integral to culture and traditions. Language is so explosive; language is so close to how you feel.”

Even translating an ecommerce website into French and German may not be enough. The study also showed that 75 per cent of EU citizens can’t speak or understand German, while 80 per cent are unable to communicate in French.

There are in fact 23 official languages spoken across the 27 EU member states, including Portuguese, Hungarian, Greek, Dutch and Polish.