Website Localization Strategies to Promote Global E-Commerce : The Moderating Role of Individualism and Collectivism

Website localization plays an important role in guiding firms on how to customize websites across countries in which they have a local presence. However, few studies on website localization have systematically examined this topic from a theoretically grounded perspective. Drawing upon the theoretically-driven consumer-company identification perspective, we propose that three website localization strategies (web similarity strategy, web distinctiveness strategy, and web prestige strategy) have positive effects on local users’ perceived website localization, which, in turn, is related to local users’ website loyalty. We further investigate the effects of the website localization strategies in a cross-cultural setting, focusing on the individualism-collectivism dimension of culture. By conducting online experiments in both the United States and China, we find that all the website localization strategies have significant impacts on consumers’ perceived website localization, which is related to consumers’ website loyalty. We also find that web distinctiveness and web prestige strategies are more effective for people from a collectivistic society than for those from an individualistic society, whereas web similarity strategies do not differ across society types. These findings highlight the importance of website localization strategies for customizing websites for global e-commerce.