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Building a business online helps eliminate the high costs of building an offline store. It’s also an excellent way to reach more customers. However, the eCommerce space is competitive as there are approximately 12 to 24 million eCommerce websites worldwide.
Therefore, properly branding your eCommerce business is essential to stand out from the competition and grab your target customers’ attention.
For example, one of the best ways to create solid branding for your eCommerce website is to have a domain name that’s consistent with your brand name. However, your online store business vision, value proposition, brand voice, and visual branding are equally as important.
Read on to discover four branding elements to level up your online shop and solidify its position as a reputable eCommerce business.
1. Business Vision
A business vision describes the long-term goal of a company’s efforts, giving it a clear focus and purpose. In fact, companies with meaningful vision have better employee engagement and productivity.
Everlane is a great example of a successful eCommerce brand with a strong business vision – “Exceptional quality. Ethical factories. Radical Transparency.” It is business and marketing activities that reflect this vision, such as transparent production processes and carefully sourcing the finest materials.
The first step in developing a strong business vision is brainstorming the business’s long-term direction with your team. Also, consider checking other online stores’ vision statements to know how to differentiate your own online store from theirs.
2. Unique Value Proposition
A unique value proposition (UVP), also known as a unique selling proposition (USP), refers to a marketing phrase explaining:
- How your business is different from others.
- The specific benefits the target audience will get from your product or service.
- How the product or service will solve online shoppers’ problems.
Take LARQ as an example. Its reusable bottle technology helps eco-conscious customers reduce their consumption of plastic bottles and drink clean water anywhere.
To create a UVP, start by performing market research. Understand your potential customer’s problems, list your products’ benefits, and see how your brand can help solve their problems. Finally, present your UVP on the site’s homepage to ensure visitors notice it.
You can also add other benefits to attract people to your new brand and increase online sales, such as:
- Free shipping
- Next-day delivery
- No setup fees
- Money-back guarantee
- Cancel any time
3. Brand Voice
Every successful eCommerce business needs a brand voice to communicate its personality and create a memorable online shopping experience.
This branding element refers to the language, messages, and tone you use in all channels, including marketing emails and social media platforms.
Generally, a brand voice for an eCommerce store varies depending on the industry and target audience. For example, a small business owner selling coffee to Gen Z may use slang and a casual tone. Meanwhile, a B2B software company is more likely to utilize professional and authoritative language.
Build your brand voice by listing personality traits that reflect your brand. Then, find writing samples with your desired tone for inspiration.
Many companies also present their voice using the brand story on their eCommerce sites. Sharing why you built the business and the work that you do can foster genuine relationships and attract more loyal customers.
4. Visual Identity
Visual identity or brand identity refers to the visible elements of a brand, including logo design, colour schemes, and images. They help to engage customers and display the brand personality.
For example, BHLDN uses pastel colour palettes and serif fonts to maintain a look of femininity for its online wedding shop.
Attractive visual elements can also improve website traffic and search engine optimization (SEO) as content with images receives 94% more views than those without.
To create a cohesive visual identity for your eCommerce website, relate each element with your brand image. For example, choose yellow and script fonts to portray a creative and energetic personality.
Canva Design School is a great online course to learn basic design principles. Consider hiring a web designer if you have a bigger budget and want to make your eCommerce site stay ahead with the latest web design technologies and trends.
Conclusion
Good eCommerce branding is essential for building a profitable online store. Without it, an online business won’t be memorable and attract customers in the competitive eCommerce landscape.
To recap, here are four important aspects to include in your small business branding strategy:
- Business vision – embodies a company’s long-term goal.
- Unique value proposition (UVP) – describes how a brand is superior to its competitors.
- Brand voice – refers to the way a brand communicates to its customers.
- Brand identity – includes visual components representing a company’s personality, like colors and logos.
Now that you understand the main elements to make a successful brand, all that’s left is to build your own. Good luck!