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The Home Depot has shut down the Spanish language version of its ecommerce site. The retailer launched the Spanish site, accessible from the general home page, in November.

According to a spokesperson, the company closed the site because nearly half of its visitors were from outside the U.S., and Home Depot doesn't deliver outside the country. The Spanish language site gave consumers access to more than 40,000 items, which is the same number as contained on the English version of HomeDepot.com. The Home Depot initially launched a pared down Spanish language site in 2003 that included do it yourself tips and ideas, the retailer says.

The elimination of Spanish comes at a time when according to Forrester Research, there are expected to be more than 17 million U.S. Hispanic consumers online by 2011. Many of those, according to Forrester, prefer to read and make a purchase in Spanish, even if they are bilingual. Other large merchants and consumer brand manufacturers that have introduced Spanish language websites recently include: Avon Products Inc., Best Buy Co., and 1-800-Flowers.com.

Article ID: 1102