Five-market research programme that localised Next for the world

The challenge

Next wanted to grow internationally. Across four very different markets, Japan, Saudi Arabia, China and Hong Kong, what does it actually take to win shoppers who don't know the brand, shop in different ecosystems, and expect a locally tuned experience?

Research run by people who shop there

In each market our research team ran competitive and desk analysis, walked users through Next's live app or mobile site, and conducted primary interviews, triangulated with behavioural analytics where the funnel was instrumented. Every study was delivered by researchers native to the market, in around four weeks per project.

What we found

Three themes held across every market. Brand perception and imagery don't travel: in Japan only one in ten participants had heard of Next, and kids-first imagery made it read as a children's brand. As one participant put it, "It is a website for under-5-year-olds; I'd close it if I arrived from an ad." In China, established Western brands have lost ground to agile local labels.

Localisation is a trust gate, not a nicety. Sizing in UK sizes rather than centimetres, fonts, language, model height, and above all local payment and checkout, PayPay and Rakuten in Japan, the national-ID step in Saudi, Alipay and WeChat in China, decide whether shoppers trust the store at all. And operational opacity loses the sale: hidden delivery and duty information and long, confusing guest-checkout forms drive measurable drop-off.

The impact

A market-by-market localisation and conversion roadmap, with behavioural data pinpointing exactly where revenue leaks. In Saudi Arabia only around half of users completed the checkout form, 35% left fields blank, and 21.6% abandoned the site at guest checkout. The Japan study quantified drop-off at every step of the funnel.