It’s the season for cultural stereotyping. As legions of Brits head over the channel, we’ll once again hear stories of how rude foreigners can be – especially if you ask them a simple question slowly and loudly in English.
It’s not really our fault, because English is the world’s favourite language 
we’ve been tricked into thinking that speaking English abroad is OK. But of course just because people in other countries can speak English, doesn’t mean they want to and of course it’s presumptuous of us to think that they would, which is most of the problem.
Online retailers can fall into the same trap. For example, figures from Forrester show that while 60% of UK shoppers prefer to pay by credit card, only 35% of French and 26% of Germans do. In the Netherlands it’s only 19%. So presenting primarily credit card options at checkout will end in a high drop out in those countries. And this is just one of many differences you need to adjust for when trading internationally.
How online customers regard brands also varies massively from country to country. French & German customers are far more venerable in their attitude to brand than their UK counterparts. They are thirsty for information, especially about forthcoming new products and will avidly read newsletters and blogs about their favourite brands. UK consumers on the other hand are much more motivated by discounts.
And in a reversal of this seasonal stereotyping, if you were to speak to the call centre of one online retailer we know who deals with French, German and UK customers, they’ll tell you that it’s actually the Brits who are the rudest – by far.