It’s astounding to think that chatbots have become significantly intuitive in the past decade. Lately, multilingual chatbots have steadily gained traction. This is because eCommerce content written in your target audience's native language will improve customer interaction and retention. This points out to the importance of the use of a multilingual chatbot and the backing of a good translation services company.

Chatbots in Ecommerce

Due to the pandemic, many businesses have shifted from in-store to eCommerce. According to an article by Forbes, the change brought by the pandemic significantly affected how companies and customers interact and conduct transactions. Because of this, the demand for chat commerce has increased exponentially around the world.

In an article by BigCommerce, it was explained why many eCommerce businesses have invested in chatbots. For example, many traditional online experiences fail due to no live customer interaction, which inadvertently falls short of the customer's expectations. Due to this, chatbots play a crucial part in alleviating four frustrating things that online customers have experienced when browsing through a website, as follows:

1. Hard to navigate. This happens when the chatbot is placed in an inconvenient part of the site and it’s hard to follow the process. 
2. Can't answer simple questions. It can be very frustrating to users, when the chatbots cannot answer simple questions like pricing or availability.
3. Not immediately getting the basic details of a company. Some chatbots have all kinds of information but are unable to give the basic information about the business and that can be frustrating users that want to know more about a company that they are buying from
4. Not getting services immediately.While prompt responses through chatbots are crucial, delays in delivering the actual service needed by customers can be very frustrating and this can be caused by a disconnect between the chat and the team that delivers the service.
   

Content in the language of the users is a very tool for connecting with potential customers. Just keep in mind that more than 50% of searches done on Google are done using languages other than English. That’s the reason why having the help of a translation services company can be very valuable.

Now that you understand why chatbots have become essential for user interaction and retention, let's further discuss why multilingual chatbots will help promote your eCommerce to a broad audience. 

Should You Make Your Chatbots Multilingual?

According to Slator, a language industry and information provider, they saw that the localization and translation industry grew up to 10% and is said to be US 26.2 billion for this year. Florian Faes, Slator Managing Director, has stated that the language industry has "shown great resilience" and proven that language service is essential to any growing business. 

Slator isn't the only one who shares this sentiment because, according to Chatbots Magazine, anyone can localize and translate their website's FAQ page whether with the help of translation services or not. However, if you want to create a more interactive experience for your international users, having multilingual chatbots is a step up as it replaces conventional customer service representatives. 

For better customer interaction, multilingual chatbots have become appealing to many eCommerce owners. And going back to the start of this article, even though users are proficient in English, they still prefer customer service in their mother tongue as they feel more at ease and in some ways they get more information out of it.

What are your options for translation? 

Would depend on the type of chatbot (AI or just chat bots with predefined responses)

Tools for Translation to Create Multilingual Chatbots 

Incorporating translation tools such as tools for localizing into your current chatbot is essential in creating a multilingual one. Not all tools are the same, though. But before we discuss localizing tools, let's first discuss what localizing content is all about.

It's the process of adapting products, documents, and services tailored to the country or region of its target audience. Apps or software for localizing that translate platforms and processes have extensive data to report and analyze the data obtained. Because of how versatile they are, you can implement the use of localizing tools into your current chatbots. The tool you will be using has to match the kind of chatbot you're using, depending on how personalized it is.

Top Programming Languages for Multilingual Chatbots

Moving on from the tools to be used for creating multilingual chatbots, what are the best programming languages that can be used for building these platforms? Here are the top 4 choices.

Python

Python has a minimalist framework that makes it ideal for building platforms that are meant to be multilingual. The best thing about Python is that it facilitates fast development time and it supports throwaway prototyping, which is crucial when building a multilingual platform.

Ruby

Ruby is another popular choice when it comes to creating multilingual chatbots. Its syntax is quite similar to Python and it supports more dynamic programming.

Java

This list will be incomplete without Java, which is the language used by many programmers around the world. One reason why it is favored by developers for creating chatbots is because it has a small memory footprint.

Lisp

Lisp was a program language that was introduced in the 1950s and is still used extensively now. It has gone through various versions and has emerged as a top choice when developing chatbots today.

These are the top programming languages that can be used by programmers to create chatbots. With the help of translation services, the right message in the right language can be delivered to customers in real-time. 

Conclusion

The pandemic has forced many companies to implement eCommerce to continue providing products and services with minimal contact. However, it's not enough that you have an eCommerce and a chatbot to help facilitate your users. There are several things that you need to remember. 

• Consider the necessity of having a multilingual chatbot
• Engage a translation services company to help in the process.
• Pick a programming language to be used in the development.
  

One way of engaging with your users is by having a multilingual chatbot that helps provide answers to your users' queries while at the same time providing a personalized experience for them. To create an effective multilingual chatbot, there are plenty of tools that are available. There are also reliable translation services that you can turn to, which can resolve the language issues.

William Mamane is the Chief Marketing Officer of Tomedes, a leading provider of translation services and a trusted name in the industry. William is an expert when it comes to international digital marketing.