Now the company announces that it is launching its website and central parts of the purchase journey in both Swedish and English. The update, which in the first phase includes everything from product pages to order confirmations, is being implemented to meet the needs of an increasingly multilingual customer base in Finland.
Over 610,000 people in Finland speak a mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish, and that number is growing rapidly. Add to that approximately 290,000 Swedish speakers, and you have a considerable customer group who have had to rely on translation tools when shopping online, says Pekka Litmanen, Sales Director at Verkkokauppa.com.
Until now, many customers have been forced to use the built-in translation functions of their web browsers to complete their purchases. According to the company, this has resulted in an unreliable shopping experience.
When using the browser's translator, product descriptions are distorted, terms and conditions remain unclear, and the right of return may be ambiguous. We decided that it simply wasn't good enough, Litmanen states.
To implement the new languages, the e-commerce company has used a combination of AI-powered tools and human quality assurance. The aim is to enable scalability for large volumes of text while ensuring that the content remains accurate. The range will be developed gradually in the future, based on collected customer data and feedback.
The company sees the language addition not only as a technical update, but as a strategic necessity to retain capital and competitiveness within domestic retail.
If domestic retailers cannot serve customers in their own language, they will turn to foreign stores. This means lost jobs, tax revenue and competitiveness for domestic retail, which we work to build up every day, says Pekka Litmanen, adding that it is also part of the company's social responsibility to make everyday purchases accessible to more people.
The launch of English and Swedish also lays the foundation for the company's continued growth outside Finland's borders. The company already generates tens of millions of euros in international sales, and the new language offering is part of the preparations to be able to target foreign consumers directly under the brand Verk.com.