Have you ever think why people are crazy for brands like Addidas, Nike etc? There are too many sports and sneakers company though then why people really crazy for Nike or Adidas? Cause they positioned themselves in the audience’s heart. This is the power of branding. Branding is not a logo or a unique name, it’s more than that. It’s not some meaningless creation and press releases out of the world. It’s more than putting a strategy on a doc. Branding cannot be seen, it should be felt. You can consider a brand as the idea or an image people have that in mind when thinking about a specific product or service. Branding is the only way to establish that image of your company in your customer’s eyes.

By opening an eCommerce website you show the world what you offer, you market that by designing an ad and promote that. By creating a logo, selecting a color scheme which is consistence through all of your marketing channels, setting up a specific message tone and remain with that everywhere whether online or offline you’re branding your eCommerce business. Branding is shaping the perceptions of how and what people think about your business.

Branding is something that simply and easily helps your users understand what you offer and how you’re different than others.

How branding plays a role in your business?

Brands matter and it’s as simple as ABC. Well, I promise I will tell you why it is important for your business too. Branding is the method that says your audience what is your product, what your product does and why they should care. It helps them to understand who you are and what you do in a different way. While marketing pushes your audience to buy from you, branding pulls them to you to take your product. Without branding, you’re iterating without know how people will experience and understand you in real the world. Brand build trust, trust build relationship, the relationship provides values. So without proper branding, you can’t really differentiate your company from other competitors in your particular industry. Without a strong brand, there is no way to stay in the long term game, that means no long-term profitability. Your brand is the feeling that’s rooted deeply in your prospects.

BRAND = RELATIONSHIP = Value

Ways to make a trustworthy eCommerce brand

Most of the eCommerce business take branding lightly and they don’t understand that branding is essential to their growth. And many of them really don’t know what is branding. However, successful eCommerce ventures take branding seriously. So here I am trying to put together some strategies to make your eCommerce brand trustworthy.

Define your brand first

Let’s start by defining your brand. For standing out in the crowded market you’ve to first define your brand. After few research you will able to precisely pinpoint the values, your customer base and the space in the market where you provide value to the end users. You will also find your brand identity, tone, and character so that your business can connect with your audience. After the extensive research write down few things on a paper where you will include your brand’s characteristic in few sentences and how you want to communicate through that. You’ve to draw a clear picture in your mind about how you want to see your brand and how your audience should take that.

Uncover your unique selling proposition (USP)

The foundation of creating an eCommerce brand is defining the unique selling proposition of your product. The reason behind USP is to differentiate your brand from your competitors and give your customers a reason to buy from you. You can easily undercover your USP by asking few questions yourself. What is your product made from? Who crafted that for you? Where the products assembled? What are the unique benefits of your product? What do you offer that no one does?

A great brand starts with a great storytelling. It’s all about crafting the story behind your business. Once you come up with the answers you can build a great story around your product. Keep in mind that it should highlight a story, philosophy and unique goal of your product and company.

Here is a short story of Hiut Denim Co. The story about how Hiut Denim sells with a unique story. Cardigan a small town where 4000 people have a Jean making factory and which has 400 employees from the town. After three decades, one day it shuts the door of the factory and eventually, all those good people got the status of unemployed. Hiut Denim Co comes to the town who puts premium quality and has some Grand Masters who are skilled enough at making great jeans. They only produce 100 jeans a week. Actually, they handcrafted limited edition jeans as well as support the community of Cardigan. So here is the catch they made that limitation into their USP. Their unique selling proposition is “ Do one thing well, our town makes the highest quality jeans.

Build a branded eCommerce site

Shopping online is nowadays more sophisticated challenge than anything and build trust as an eCommerce brand is hard. Online shoppers expect from any venture that they will make a simple user journey. It’s all start with a branded eCommerce site. With a great branding strategy and being consistence on the entire site will help you gain your customer’s trust. Your eCommerce brand should not be just a sales channel or an isolated strategy, that should be a key expression of your brand. You should create a succinct visual and verbal message that communicates with the consumers that value your eCommerce company. From website copy to visuals every portion of your site will talk about your brand.

Ensure a great experience with user experience centric design

As your customers expect a simple user interface for the shopping experience on site, you should craft the eCommerce site design and user experience flow as simple as possible and intuitive. Trust me a great user experience with a great branding strategy will drive your conversions crazy. There are a couple of ways to ensure a great on-site user experience, you’ve to constantly test and improve your design and ensure that is good for your users. You can use some analytics tools, heat map tools and A/B Testing tools to ensure that. It’s a huge subject, We have published two articles on Sitepoint blog on how you can drive conversion with a great user experience. E-commerce business often notices abandoned checkouts and 75% of abandoned checkouts caused by a poor user experience, So without ensuring a great user experience, you will not scale your business at it’s best. From the landing page to checkout process make it simple and easy to use for your user. Being consistence on site will give your user a distinct feeling about your brand.

Provide value

People always trust brands cause brands are always able to establish themselves well in the busy online space by giving top values to their customers. You’ve to build a world-class customer support and sales department where you will show how much you care about your customers. No matter how many sales you are getting for your eCommerce business there is always the opportunity to show your gratitude. You and your team have to manage some time to go above and beyond to thank your customers and engage with them. This will not only position your business as a brand but also it will position your brand as being thankful and recognizing among your audience. This way you will establish in your industry as a brand which will let you play as a long-term player.

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Conclusion: In this competitive world without branding, you can’t really stay long. Branding is very important to position your company in the audience’s heart. All of the above are the handful to starting your eCommerce brand, simply you’ve to research your buyer persona and figuring out the winning difference between you and your competitors. Building a truly great brand and relationship with your audience is a piece of art. And that art will make you standout than others. Happy eCommerce 🙂