What's Actually Going On
Most people have heard this line, but only believe half of it — assuming it just means "remember to translate your materials into English." What it actually means is: the buyer simply doesn't have the time or patience to make sense of materials that are logically disorganized and information-overloaded, whether they're in Chinese or English.
A buyer looks at dozens of sets of materials every day. They aren't "reading" — they're "scanning." If they can't find what they care about within three seconds — what this product is, what the core selling point is, what channel it fits — you're already out, even if the product itself is genuinely competitive.
A Real Example
An English-language product catalog had flawless grammar, but crammed every spec, certification, and packaging detail for 20 SKUs onto a single page, all in the same font size, with no visual hierarchy. Buyer feedback: "I looked at it, but didn't remember a single product."
After redesigning it — one page per core product, a single line at the top stating the core selling point, detailed specs below that — the same content got buyers replying noticeably faster.
So What Should You Actually Do
- At the top of every product page, state the core selling point in one sentence — don't make the buyer go find it themselves.
- Subtract: more information isn't better — what matters is making the information the buyer cares about most stand out.
- Ask yourself first: if the buyer only looks for three seconds, what one thing about these materials would they remember? If the answer's fuzzy, the materials aren't ready yet.