In this age of eCommerce, social media and big data-powered offers, how can established businesses compete against Internet moguls like Amazon.com?

The answer might rest in the language you use to talk to your customers! Increasingly, Latinos have caught the attention of eCommerce operators and traditional store managers as the new key growth market. Several dynamics make Latinos a seductive target market, namely attachment, larger homes and a tendency to refer local businesses that cater to their needs.

Best Buy became a pioneer in this area when it started offering free Spanish Rosetta Stone courses to its employees in every Dallas, TX store. The move has proven very successful, with employees reporting even 100% increase in sales.

A case study co-written by yours truly analyses this phenomenon and presents a framework that helps managers assess the potential profits of implementing a multilingual store via eLearning. This academic case study titled “Best Buy: Investing in Language Learning” saw huge demand in 2013 and became a best-selling business case study and one of the most influential pieces of academic business content written at North American business schools (see the source at Bloomberg Businessweek).

A bilingual (or even multilingual) store is an important differentiator in the fight against eCommerce giants such as Amazon and eBay. And Best Buy is a prime example of how to engage in such a fight while capturing a new market segment.

You can discover more about this trend by visiting the Customer Stories section at Rosetta Stone’s website.