3 reasons why your offer isn't selling in Lithuania
Many Polish companies think that Lithuania is just a smaller Polish market where translating the site is enough. This is a mistake that costs thousands of zlotys thrown away on ineffective ads. Since September 2016 at Baltic Growth Partners, we have observed how Polish brands lose budgets because they don't understand the mentality of the local customer. Below we describe three specific reasons why your sales bars in Vilnius or Kaunas might be standing still.
Bad translation is not just a linguistic error
In July 2023, we checked 42 websites of Polish companies that tried to enter the Lithuanian market. As many as 38 of them had product descriptions translated automatically or by people who didn't know the industry specifics. A Lithuanian customer senses this in 3 seconds. It's not just about grammar, but about the fact that Lithuanians use different arguments when purchasing than Poles. For them, specifics, technical data, and clear origin of goods matter, not flowery descriptions full of adjectives. Our 2024 data shows that improving the benefit language to natural Lithuanian raises conversion by 21% in just one month.
At Baltic Growth Partners we work on hard numbers, so we know that shortening descriptions by 30% on Lithuanian landing pages raised sales for our tool industry client by 14.3% in February 2024. Polish companies are often afraid to cut text, thinking that the more they write, the better. In Lithuania, it's the opposite – the local manager wants to quickly find information about weight, dimensions, and delivery date. If these data are hidden under a block of text, the customer simply closes the tab and goes to a competitor from Germany or Scandinavia.
Another aspect is the matching of photos and graphics. Polish stock photos showing smiling people in suits absolutely do not work in Vilnius or Panevėžys. The local market values authenticity and local context. Changing graphics to ones showing a real office or warehouse in Gdansk instead of glass skyscrapers from London increased trust measured in our surveys by 22 percentage points. Lithuanians prefer buying from a neighbor they can see, rather than from an anonymous corporation hidden behind artificial photos.
Results matter, not promises. A Lithuanian customer will choose an offer that saves them real euros, not one that sounds beautiful.
Lack of a local phone number and address
Lack of physical presence is an insurmountable barrier for 63% of Lithuanian contractors in the B2B sector. Our team in Gdansk often receives inquiries from companies that don't understand why no one replies to their emails. The solution is not always renting an expensive office in the center of Vilnius, but the absolute minimum is a local phone number with the +370 prefix. Without this, your company looks like a tourist who just wants to make money quickly and disappear, rather than a serious business partner. The Baltic region has no secrets from us and we know that trust is built from the first phone contact.
In April 2024, we helped a furniture industry company implement customer service in Lithuanian under a local number. Before this move, they had an average of 3 inquiries per month, mainly in English. After the change and adding a Lithuanian-speaking consultant, the number of inquiries jumped to 19 in just 22 business days. We organize sales from scratch, so we know that the language barrier is the most common reason why Lithuanians give up contact at an early stage. Even if they can speak English, they prefer negotiating terms in their native language.
Trust is also built through clear return and service policies. A Lithuanian customer wants to know where they will send the goods if a defect occurs. If the return address is a warehouse near Rzeszów, high cost and long shipping time will effectively deter them. Implementing a local collection point in Kaunas for one of our clients shortened complaint time from 12 to 4 days. This translated into a 15% increase in repeat orders in the second quarter of 2024. These are real profits resulting from logistics, not marketing.
Ignoring local payment methods
Payments are a key moment of truth in every online business. Blik reigns in Poland, but in Lithuania, that solution doesn't exist. The local market is dominated by direct bank transfers made in one click through bank-link systems. If your store doesn't have icons of banks like Swedbank, SEB, or Luminor, you lose about 45% of potential transactions at the cart stage. We checked this on a group of 1,247 users in May 2024 – the lack of a familiar bank logo caused immediate exit from the site.
Many Polish companies try to force Lithuanians to pay by credit card or regular foreign transfer. This is a mistake. Lithuanians are used to convenience and speed. We saw cases where cart abandonment was 74% because the company didn't understand how important local payment gateways are. After implementing appropriate integrators in March 2024, this indicator dropped to 29% in just two weeks. We work on hard numbers and these data don't lie – payment convenience is the foundation of selling abroad.
Logistics must go hand in hand with payments. Lithuania is a country dominated by Omniva parcel lockers. In Poland we have InPost, but there the orange color of Omniva or post offices matters. If you only offer courier delivery to the door, you are limiting yourself to a fraction of the market. Data from the first quarter of 2024 shows that adding Omniva lockers to delivery methods raised conversion for our partners by an average of 33%. A customer wants to pick up a parcel at 9:00 PM returning from work, just like in Poland.
Lack of a local payment method in Lithuania cuts sales in half. No one will make a foreign transfer when competition allows paying with one click.
Building B2B relationships Lithuanian style
In Lithuania, business relationships are built slightly differently than in Poland. We organize sales from scratch for companies that want to enter there seriously, and we always repeat: be patient but specific. The average closing time for a transaction in the construction sector in Lithuania is 52 days, while in Poland we often close the topic in a month. A Lithuanian manager needs time to check your credibility, but once they make a decision, they are a very loyal partner. In 2023, we trained 84 salespeople from 12 Polish companies, teaching them this specific business etiquette.
Operational marketing in Lithuania requires presence in channels that are sometimes overlooked in Poland. LinkedIn is extremely strong there in the B2B sector, and a well-profiled campaign in Vilnius can bring more valuable leads than three months of Google ads. Our IT sector client gained 14 key business contacts in July 2024 thanks to a strategy based on specific case studies and savings calculations, rather than general slogans about 'high quality'.
The last thing is price transparency. In Lithuania, hiding the price list under the 'ask for a quote' slogan causes anxiety. Our clients who decided to provide at least price ranges or example implementation costs noted a 37% increase in the quality of inquiries in June 2024. Salespeople stopped wasting time on conversations with people without an appropriate budget, and customers appreciated clear rules of the game. Remember: The Baltic region has no secrets from us, and the key to it is honesty and specifics.
