Translator "pop-up" window on home page for international customers?

[JR123]

Hi all,

We're looking to start expanding internationally, and though we have a Google Translate "bar" on our header, it's off to the right and I'm afraid that non-English speaking customers might not realize that it's there.

Unless someone has a better suggestion (and it'd be appreciated if so!), I was hoping to have something done where, based on IP address, it would pop-up a window on the home page (or any page when FIRST entered by the customer), in the language most frequently used in that country/region, that let's them know that they can translate our website, if needed.

Ideally, I would embed the Google Translate toolbar into that pop-up window, but even if I was only able to point out that it exists on the right side header, that would certainly suffice -- better than nothing at all I suppose.

I'm just trying to make it to where a non-English speaking customer doesn't abandon our website thinking there's no way they can ever understand a product (and yes, I know that translator tools aren't 100% perfect :) ).

Ideas, suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
James

[cbsteven]

My personal opinion is that in an English-centric web, non-English-speaking consumers who are shopping around will be making full use of things like Google Translate and know the tricks to making it easier, so it isn't worth much effort on my end to put a translation front and center.

I may be totally wrong about that.

[JR123]

Thanks for the input! You're probably right; we just have virtually no experience with an abundance of international customers so we weren't sure what to expect. I suppose you're right about them knowing the tricks to translate (and we will still have the translator "app" in the header) -- if anything ends up being different, we'll revisit something like this.

Thanks again!
James