The information on this page was current at the time it was published. Regulations, trends, statistics, and other information are constantly changing. While we strive to update our Knowledge Base, we strongly suggest you use these pages as a general guide and be sure to verify any regulations, statistics, guidelines, or other information that are important to your efforts.

January 31st, 2020 Update: On March 29, 2017, UK Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50, which formally started the process whereby the UK would leave the European Union. The original plan was for the UK to leave the EU on March 29th, 2019 but on October 28th, 2019, the EU agreed to push the extension deadline to January 31, 2020. 

The council agreed to conclude the withdrawal, and it  took effect at midnight on January 31st, 2020. After this date, the UK is no  longer an EU member state. This will obviously shift how business is done in the UK. We will keep updating this page to reflect these changes. 

Learn more about Brexit here. 

Product Localization for the United Kingdom

Good localization is so invisible, it’s no wonder people have never heard of it. It’s only when it’s bad (or non-existent) that it’s noticeable. And believe me, people do notice it.  

Katie Botkin in her blog, What is Localization?

When you ‘localize’ your  products, websites, services, and apps, you make them local and relevant to the people in that country - as if they were made for that country from the start. And when you get it right, it's a beautiful thing.  But if you get it wrong or don't localize at all, it's obvious. And there are other ways that you will need to pay attention to the UK market, including SEO, local culture, laws and regulations, trade marks, taxation, and data protection. 

As you enter the UK market, it’s worth your time to consider how you will “localize” your efforts. While you may be familiar with doing business in your own country, there are many areas to plan for as you expand globally.  Simply taking what works in your country and introducing it in the UK may not work. And if you don’t plan ahead, you could end up costing your company both financially and in wasted time – or you could even be risking failure.  But if you take the right steps from the start, you can make localization a much easier process, even as you expand beyond the UK.

Globig provides you with a wealth of information to help you with Product Localization. If you would like to get to work on localizing for the UK market, Globig's UK Expansion Plan gives you step-by-steps guides on not only Product Localization, but on a number of other areas to ease your entry into the UK. 

Globalization, Internationalization (i18n), and Localization (l10n)

Before we go any further, more definitions are called for. You’ll commonly hear people interchange the words globalization, internationalization, and localization.  So, what do all three terms mean?

Globalization is often used incorrectly and it’s important to confirm exactly what is meant when someone says they are ‘globalizing’ to make sure they don’t mean internationalization or localization, or simply having a global strategy. The most common meaning is that globalization is a way to impact the entire world the same way at one time. If you want to globalize monetary funds, you’re seeking to have one currency for all. Rather than globalization, what you are working on is your Global Strategy.  

Internationalization (sometimes shortened to i18n for i- 18 letters - n) makes it possible to localize your web and mobile application by developing in such a way that the primary aspects such as language translation, space needed for different language and the ability to make localized changes is easy to do based on flexible coding.  i18n uses a process of planning and implementing products and services so that they can be easily adapted to specific local languages and cultures, called localization. Depending upon the languages you’re developing in, there are developer resources in GitHub and other technology sites to guide you. And here are additional details that describe the differences well.

Localization (sometimes shortened to l10n for l-10 letters - n), is making something appear as if it was developed in the local market, through changing language, colors, time zones, currency, and the like.  If internationalization was done first, localization becomes much easier.  It not, you’ll find your teams doing a lot more development and support work to localize.  

Here are the areas we cover in the Product Localization sections:

International SEO For The UK

Data Protection Regulations In The UK

Value Added Tax In The UK

Billing Regulations In The UK

International Trademark In The UK

Language Localization For The UK

Cultural Localization For The UK