Using a multilingual eCommerce storefront to improve your learner experience

More and more organizations are moving away from traditional in-person learning and instead embracing online offerings such as SCORM courses, webinars, and video tutorials. The online eCommerce storefront has further bolstered this trend by allowing learners to browse and purchase online learning anywhere and anytime. 

If you want to reach an increasingly diverse, global audience, it's time to consider a multilingual eCommerce storefront. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of setting up a multilingual storefront and how SmarterU can help you deliver a consistent learner experience, from browsing your course catalog to purchasing to course completion. 

New storefront feature in SmarterU LMS

Recently, we released a new feature in SmarterU that gives you more control over how users are created when they purchase a course from an external storefront. Specifically, you can now set up the storefront so that whenever a user makes a purchase, the system creates their profile with a specific default language. 

For example, imagine you have two SmarterU storefronts — one offers courses in French, and the other offers courses in Spanish. When learners purchase courses from the French storefront, SmarterU can create their user profiles with the default language set to French. As a result,  when they log in, they will be presented the SmarterU interface in French. Similarly, you can set up your Spanish storefront so learners purchasing courses have their default language set to Spanish. These learners will experience SmarterU in Spanish.

What languages are available?

When a learner purchases a course from your storefront, you can create their user profile with any of the following default languages: 

• Arabic
• English
• French
• German
• Hindi
• Korean
• Pilipino
• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish
• Thai

You can contact our Success Desk to add any of these languages to your account. 

Benefits of a multilingual eCommerce storefront 

By presenting everything in the learner’s preferred language — your storefront, your courses, and the SmarterU interface — you ensure they have a smooth, consistent experience from start to finish.

Enhance accessibility and inclusivity: Show your learners that you want EVERYONE to have a stellar experience. When learners can navigate in their preferred language, they feel more comfortable, can find what they need, and, in turn, are more confident making a purchase. No more getting lost along the way!

Increase your global reach: Expand your course offerings to learners worldwide. Multilingual storefronts connect you to new geographic locations, customers, and potential revenue.

Better learner experience: When learners can access your site in their native language, they tend to feel more connected to the content and seen by your organization. This feeling of connection leads to a more enjoyable experience, higher engagement with your courses, and better retention rates. 

Positive brand perception: Show learners that you value cultural diversity and are committed to offering an inclusive experience. Building a positive reputation can boost sales and attract talent.  A well-thought-out eCommerce storefront can help your organization shine in a competitive industry. 

Set up a Storefront in SmarterU

We recommend creating separate storefronts for your course offerings based on their language. For example, if you offer English, Arabic, and German courses, we recommend you create three storefronts. 

Let’s walk through the steps for creating a SmarterU storefront in German. Before starting the process of creating your storefront, you need to: 

• Create your store in a third-party eCommerce tool (1Shopping Cart, Magento, PayPal, Shopify, or WooCommerce). 

We recommend designing your store to display everything in the same language as your course offerings (in this case, German).  While this may seem daunting, many translation services, plugins, and other tools are available to help with translations. Consider your learners’ experience viewing the course catalog through the checkout process. 

• Create or upload your courses into SmarterU. The course name, description, and content should all be written in the same language (in this case, German). 
• Within SmarterU, create one or more subscriptions and their corresponding variants with your courses (in this case, all your German courses available for purchase). Remember to use your desired language when filling in any fields that will be visible to learners!

To create a SmarterU storefront, follow these steps: 

1. Select Account Admin in the menu.
2. Click Storefront Management to view the Storefront Management Dashboard. 
3. Click +Storefront. 

This will open the Add/Edit Storefront workscreen.

4. In the Main accordion, enter some general information about your storefront. We recommend using the language you want to appear to learners (in this case, German). 
5. Set the Type to External. 

6. In the Configuration accordion, specify where error notifications should go.
7. Indicate what group learners should be assigned to when they are created in SmarterU.
8. Select your eCommerce provider.

9. Fill out the remaining fields to connect your SmarterU storefront with your eCommerce provider. Check out our External Storefront: Configuration help page to learn about the fields you need to fill in for each provider.  
10. Click Save.
11. In the Subscriptions accordion, select the subscription variants you would like to sell through your storefront. 

12. Click Save.
13. Contact our Success Desk to change the default language that users are created with when they purchase courses from this storefront. We’ll need to know the name of the storefront you would like us to edit and your preferred language setting. 
14. Repeat the process to create your other storefronts. 

Once you have created your storefront, thoroughly review it yourself or with some pilot learners. While following the steps above should ensure the learner experience is smooth and error-free, it’s always best to do extra testing to verify everything before launch. 

In conclusion, you can significantly improve your learner experience by customizing your multilingual eCommerce storefronts to create users with the same language as the courses they purchased. By allowing learners to view, purchase, and take their training in their native language, you ensure that they understand and enjoy the learning process from start to finish. While creating a multilingual storefront may initially seem daunting, the benefits outweigh the effort involved. So, embrace the challenge and create an inclusive learning experience that learners will appreciate.

Questions? Contact us at success@neovation.com.