Learn how to successfully localize your business for the booming Brazilian e-commerce market. This guide covers language, cultural adaptation, mobile optimization, consumer behavior, and seasonal marketing strategies to help you thrive in Brazil.
Brazil is the eighth largest economy in the world, and it has one of the fastest-growing eCommerce markets. For this reason, more and more companies are fine-tuning their marketing strategies for Brazilian audiences.
Should your company expand into Latin America’s biggest market? Let’s explore why and how you should localize for Brazil.
Substantial natural resources, a vast consumer base and major infrastructure investments make Brazil a promising market for foreign investment.
Brazil's burgeoning eCommerce market makes it an appealing place for foreign marketers and retailers. Here’s what you should know about Brazil’s market:
Online shopping is very popular in Brazil, with over 100 million people buying online in 2021. Here’s what you should know about Brazilian shoppers:
To capture the attention of Brazilians, you'll need to adapt your existing product or service to meet local expectations. Apart from having a keen understanding of what kind of product or service will resonate with locals, you also need to practice effective translation and localization.
Here are our best localization tips for a Brazilian audience.
English isn’t widely spoken in Brazil. If your website is English-only, just 5% of the Brazilian population will be able to read it. Instead, you should translate your digital content to Brazil's official language, Brazilian Portuguese.
Speaking of consumers, Brazilian shoppers are very comfortable with subscriptions and payment plans. To adapt to this market, offer plenty of payment options for your customers.
Seasonal celebrations like the Carnival festival are cultural touchstones in Brazil. To boost conversions, you should offer seasonal promotions and deals to your Brazilian audience.
Don’t forget to localize your social and SEO strategy for Brazil. Google is the most widely-used search engine there. Brazil’s most popular social media platforms include Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok and Instagram.
As you market to Brazilian locals, be sure to obey nationwide internet regulations. Did you know that Brazil has consumer privacy laws much like Europe’s GDPR? The LGDP, or Brazilian Data Protection Law, protects the data of its consumers.
As you build your Brazilian localization strategy, don’t forget to adapt your product’s user interface (UI) to the local preferences of Brazilians.
Here's some advice to help you localize your website or mobile app UI for Brazil.
Localize All Site Elements
Choose Fonts Wisely
Informality is OK
Be Mindful of Text Length
Before you launch in Brazil, you’ll need to translate your content into Brazilian Portuguese. If you don’t translate, you’ll be missing out on a lot of traffic: 95% of Brazilians won’t be able to read an English-only site.
There are an estimated 228 million native speakers of Portuguese around the world:
Here are some helpful pointers to help you translate a website or app for the Brazilian market.
Brazil was once a colony of Portugal, so the two regions share a common language. However, there are many regional differences. For example, Brazilians call a phone a celular, while people in Portugal would call it a telemovel. When targeting Brazil, be sure to use Brazilian Portuguese.
Accent marks are very important in Brazilian Portuguese. For example, avó means grandmother, but avô means grandfather. If you ignore the accents and characters of this language, you’re bound to get a low-quality translation.
Be sure to spell the country’s name, Brasil, like the locals do. If you use the American spelling of Brazil, locals will instantly know that your content wasn’t made for them.
When translating for Brazil, you should avoid machine translations and literal, word-for-word translations. Professional translators can capture nuances and cultural contexts that might otherwise be missed by AI.
For example, things that seem innocuous to people in the US might not translate well in other places. Most Americans would be surprised to find out that the popular thumbs-up emoji 👍 is considered incredibly offensive in Brazil.
Hiring a local expert for translation and using a translation management system (TMS) can help you get culturally appropriate Portuguese translations every time.
Are you ready to get started with your Brazilian localization project?
Localize can help you translate your website, application, or mobile app into Brazilian Portuguese. With easy no-code installation, our TMS platform can help you start translating right away. After translating with Localize, customers reported 66% faster turnaround times, plus impressive increases in international traffic and revenue.
Contact Localize to jumpstart your success in the Brazilian market.
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