Make your online presence fit in with the Indian market

We’ve created this guide to help you get closer to your Indian customers. A web presence that is in tune with India’s culture will make your customers feel well disposed to you, and give them confidence in doing business with you. By understanding these little yet important details, you'll be in a good position right from the start in your new market.

In India 95% of online content is written in English according to a study by KPMG in India and Google. But by 2021 the number of Hindi users will exceed English-speakers.

On television 95% of the language is Hindi.

Hindi is one of the country’s two official languages and spoken by almost 60% of the population. The other language is English. Use localized English and Hindi to cover the majority of online audience.

The main written and spoken languages in India vary by region and include:

• Hindi
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Marathi
• Bengali
• Malayalam
• Kannada
• Gujarati
• Nepali
• Punjabi
• Odiya

Should you be formal or informal when addressing your Indian customers?

Indian customers would expect to be communicated to in a formal, but friendly manner. It is acceptable to address customers by their first name with a prefix of their title, e.g. Mr. Mrs., when communicating in English. Or suffixing जी (pronounced as G, spelled as Ji or Jee) when writing in Hindi.

It can be considered rude if a younger person addresses an older person without the Hindi suffix or English prefix.

If you have a financial product, a legal service, or are talking about money, you should adopt a more formal tone and style.

Numerals

Decimal separator

• This is a dot or full stop (.) – e.g 1.5 hours.

Thousand separator

• The thousand separator is a comma and a full point (,) (.), – e.g.1,524.00 people.

• The written and spoken term “lakh” is frequently used to say “one hundred thousand” – e.g. 100,000.00 is called a “lakh”.

• The written and spoken term “crore” is frequently used to say “ten million” or one hundred times one hundred thousand, – e.g. 10,000,000.00 is called a “crore”.

Numbering system

The Indian numbering system is unique. In numbers of at least one lakh (one hundred thousand), a comma divides every two rather than every three numbers to the left of the last three. For example:

This is because the Indian numbering system has units for thousands, hundreds of thousands, tens of millions, etc.

Telephone numbers

Every village, town and city in India has its own Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) code. The larger cities have the shortest STD codes. Smaller so-called 'tier two' cities have longer STD codes.

• The largest metropolitan cities have shorter area codes (STD codes), which are two digits. For example:

• The smaller so-called 'tier two' cities have longer STD codes of three digits. For example:

• The total number of all phone numbers in India is ten digits. This includes the STD code. – e.g. 1411234567 has the Jaipur STD code 141 plus a seven digit number.

• For landlines a district code is used. You have to add the prefix 0 or +91 when dialling district to district.

• When dialing locally use the phone number with no prefix.

• For Inter state calls use the country code +91 or 0 before dialling a number.

• Mobile phone calls have the prefix +91 followed by a ten digit number.

• When calling a landline from a mobile phone use the prefix 0+ the STD code followed by the number.

Indian Rupee. This is represented by the sign ₹. Its trading three letter code is INR,
e.g. 500 INR.

The rupee comes in banknotes and coins.

The rupee note denominations are ₹2,000 ₹500 ₹100 ₹50 ₹20 ₹10 ₹5.

The rupee coin denominations are ₹1 ₹2 ₹5 ₹10.

The 50 paise coin is half a rupee.

The date format used in India is DD-MM-YY, e.g. 24-03-17.

The 12-hour clock is widely used in everyday speech and written communications.

The 24-hour clock is often used on railways and used on digital devices like PCs, phones, tablets, etc. and is the format on Android where the separator is a colon, e.g. 14:24.

Standard working days are Monday to Friday or Monday to Saturday.

Every culture has different superstitions and traditions which are always worth noting, especially when entering a new market.

The number 13 is considered to be unlucky.

When giving monetary gifts for birthdays or weddings, always add an extra rupee so the amount does not end in a 0, e.g. 2,001 rupees.

Here are the top seven translation tips that will make you sound like a local in Indian market in no time:

1. Take a note of differences in spelling, punctuation, pricing, date formats, measurements and terminology.

2. Stay clear of colloquialisms and expressions used in your language, as they may not translate in your Indian market. For example, local slang.

3. Take account of cultural differences so that you don’t confuse or offend your Indian audience. For example, don’t reference a North Indian festival to your South Indian customers, and vice versa. Localize as much as you can.

4. Word-for-word translations can sound unnatural, engage a local speaker to translate local idioms and phrases.

5. Context is very important. Use pictures that can be used across all of India. If you can’t do this, then use South Indian pictures for South Indian states. Use images relating to North India in North Indian states.

6. An Indian buyer will be hesitant to buy online in case they lose their money to fraudulent sites. So make sure that you include enough language and data on your website to establish trust with your potential buyer.

7. It can be complicated making online payments due to low banking and plastic money penetration. So provide payment options such as cash-on-delivery and mention it across the site.

Discover how to ensure your website is local in tone and language in our localization guide.