Part 1: Where Mac Duggal Started ▶ Watch (1:31)
A 40-year heritage
Mac Duggal is a brand of more than 40 years, selling women's special occasion and formalwear globally. Its wholesale business has sold into department stores and boutiques around the world for decades. The direct-to-consumer side, with the brand's own website, was added about five years ago, and expanding that presence internationally became a priority.
The setup before Glopal ▶ Watch (3:09)
Mac Duggal was already serving close to a hundred countries through checkout, with Glopal powering that checkout, and used the Shopify Translate and Adapt app to translate five languages. It was a mixed experience, only partially translated, and the team felt it never told the complete picture of the brand.
Serving a market vs being present in one ▶ Watch (4:11)
Demand was clearly there, but growth was driven by paid acquisition rather than organic discovery, and customers could not experience the brand natively. Emily frames full localization as the next unlock: the way to build a more stable business instead of one held up by paid, which is spikier and more expensive to grow on.
Translation as manual, daily work ▶ Watch (5:34)
Every website change, which happened weekly, and every new product, which was almost daily, meant the team going back to double-check translations. Automated translation alone did not capture the local meaning a fashion brand needs, so the work piled up and simply was not scalable.
Part 2: The Opportunity and Choosing a Partner ▶ Watch (6:57)
The Middle East and the case for Arabic
The clearest opening was the Middle East. Mac Duggal already had wholesale brand awareness there and customers actively looking for the brand, so checkout alone unlocked demand quickly. The team believed there was far more untapped demand across the region if they could offer the experience in Arabic.
The non-negotiables ▶ Watch (8:01)
Mac Duggal was not looking for another translation tool. It needed a partner for the full localization experience: every app and everything on the site localized so nothing felt fragmented, real SEO support, and the more complex right-to-left Arabic experience handled professionally enough to reflect the brand.
Why Glopal ▶ Watch (9:17)
What stood out was the combination of human and technology at the scale and number of countries Mac Duggal wanted. A team of experts who could understand the brand, bring market knowledge, and build an infrastructure that would carry the brand voice long term, so the customer gets the same brand experience in whatever language they choose.
Making the internal case ▶ Watch (11:47)
International was a smaller, emerging share at the time, so the team framed the spend as a growth investment rather than a technology or translation expense. The logic: every localized page builds a long-term base that compounds, letting customers discover the brand natively in their own language beyond paid acquisition.
Part 3: Live in 28 Markets in Under Three Months ▶ Watch (13:38)
A phased rollout
The rollout was deliberately phased. Mac Duggal started with net-new markets where it had no languages or advertising feeds, to read the real impact and set baselines. Arabic and the entire Middle East came second as the more complex piece, then the existing languages while preserving hard-won SEO value and managing redirects, and finally the longer-tail and multi-language countries.
The biggest surprise ▶ Watch (15:47)
The team expected operational and SEO benefits. What surprised them most was the customer reaction. Shoppers engaged quickly, chatting with Mac Duggal in their own language from day one, and with translation in place it felt seamless.
The Arabic default-language lesson ▶ Watch (16:43)
Launching Arabic forced a binary default-language choice. Defaulting to Arabic actually softened the business, because about 45% of customers wanted Arabic while 55% were still shopping in English and now had to switch. Glopal had a new tool in testing that defaulted to the customer's browser language, Mac Duggal pushed it through, and revenue came right back and grew. The same logic was then applied to markets like Canada with English and French.
Part 4: What Changed: Team, Customers, Results ▶ Watch (20:34)
From operations to growth
International work used to be heavily operational. Now that localization is simply part of the infrastructure, the team's energy goes to merchandising, the customer experience, and growth rather than maintenance. Emily describes it as an unlock that released the team from the operational grind.
Customers who think Mac Duggal is local ▶ Watch (21:26)
One of Emily's favorite outcomes: customers reach out in their own language assuming Mac Duggal is a local brand. She gets reach-outs weekly, including one that morning from a business in Argentina. It removes the barrier and speaks to authenticity and trust, with customers arriving already expecting to be looked after in their language.
The results ▶ Watch (23:19)
Mac Duggal has seen triple-digit growth in many of its localized markets. Germany and Poland stood out in particular: previously undersized for the opportunity, they grew much faster once fully localized. The growth has also been higher quality, with larger average order value and more consistency.
International revenue share ▶ Watch (24:42)
International was about 8% of DTC revenue when the project started. By the end of last year it had already moved to 16%, and the target is around 20% by year end, all while domestic and overall DTC keep growing too. International is now considered at the highest level of the company, including in product development.
Part 5: Looking Ahead and Advice ▶ Watch (26:14)
Why they keep adding markets
Mac Duggal sees demand showing up in countries before it localizes them. As those opportunities pop up, the team follows the signal and continues expanding into additional places beyond the current 28 markets.
Advice for brands on the fence ▶ Watch (27:06)
Think beyond the translation piece. Full-site localization creates the brand experience, not just one language swapped for another, and it acts as an unlock to growth. The organic and SEO benefits compound over time, so the earlier you start the better, and it works as a partner to paid acquisition rather than a replacement.
What she would do differently ▶ Watch (28:54)
Start sooner. Because the SEO foundation compounds the longer it is live, Emily's one regret is not having begun earlier, which would have put the brand even further along today.
Q&A Highlights ▶ Watch (30:03)
How do you handle customer queries across all these languages?
Mac Duggal tested a few chat apps on the site, which Glopal translates so browsing stays seamless and pre-purchase questions are handled. For support, a customer service tool auto-translates conversations back and forth, so the whole interaction stays fairly seamless. (Pierre)
How fast can you roll out new languages? ▶ Watch (30:57)
It can be very quick, depending on the platform. Julien adds that more than two languages usually beats starting with two, because you can rarely predict which markets will become your top two, and Mac Duggal is a good example of the upside of going broader. (Tyler)
How did you assess Arabic vs English? ▶ Watch (31:38)
Mac Duggal ran a test looking specifically at the two languages, with paid ads in both English and the translated version, and the Glopal team helped monitor it as they rolled out. (Simona)
Localization as growth expansion, not translation ▶ Watch (32:36)
The team looked at orders, average order value, and consistency of revenue, alongside paid campaigns in English and the five translated languages. Emily notes that planning has become much easier with a stable organic base, rather than a sales plan driven only by paid. (Joe)
Was implementation a lot of work for the internal team? ▶ Watch (34:13)
Not a lot of work for Mac Duggal, though Emily credits the Glopal team with carrying the heavy lifting. It ran through about three workshops covering the brand and the product specifics, like the fact that a cocktail dress in the US may be a party dress elsewhere, followed by quality checks. Overall, very doable. (Hema)
Did you get help with GEO and AI search? ▶ Watch (35:47)
Mac Duggal has been preparing data as a brand on Shopify rather than doing GEO specifically with Glopal, and that work then becomes translatable through Glopal. Julien adds that Glopal amplifies what a brand already does on its domestic market across other markets, and that AI search is already the second source of traffic for most of their customers. (closing question)
