The Spanish market represents 12% of world’s online users and includes Latin America (LatAm), Spain and the US Spanish-speaking population. Because they share a common language, engaging with this audience is attractive, and can be highly profitable, if done right.
Quick facts:
Latin America will be the region with the most growth in the next three years:
Is localized currency necessary?
Latin American countries relate strongly to the US dollar due to investments and international trade priced in USD and the increase in tourism from the US. With 20 different countries, providing your product in the local currency is a big effort and not exactly necessary. It is fine to use the US dollar for Latin America and the US Spanish speaking population. For Spain though, you’ll need to localize to the Euro.
Hot products
The top products within these three regions are similar: cosmetics, electronics, and music. Similar to the states, the biggest shopping events are in December and on New Year’s Eve. This is a time for family reunions, gifts and also when many companies give yearly bonuses to employees.
Top Three Products by Region:
Cultural Differences
Cultural differences matter when you want to engage in a conversation that leads to a sale. Like most marketing, it needs to be personalized to your audience. This group is proud of their Latin heritage and to provide a website in their language is to make them proud of their Latin background. For example, Best Buy put more emphasis on the US Spanish-speaking consumers in 2006 by creating a fully translated Spanish site. As a result Best Buy saw this target group spend twice as much money and time on the website. If you are targeting these three regions consider having a Spanish site complete from landing page to checkout.
Cultural Differences by Region:
Tips for Merchants by Region:
