Everything you Need to know for a Successful Ecommerce Branding Strategy

Did you know that building a successful ecommerce branding strategy is rooted in how seamlessly you encourage your users to recognize and trust your brand? It goes far beyond quirky advertisements or catchy social media presence. What entices people is a reflection of a brand’s presence in their minds. Once this milestone is achieved, you’ll start realizing your grip over the ever-evolving ecommerce landscape. 

When your branding is strong, your presence becomes unshakable. Your competitors can imitate your new products or features to become competent in the market, but your branding remains exclusive to your brand.

Branding, in addition to, a product that caters to a user’s specific needs, convenient delivery options, and affordable pricing –- your business is golden. This glaring presence can make your brand the most appealing amongst thousands of other competitors. Sounds elaborate, sure, but let us break it down for you. 

Quick guide:

• Why is ecommerce branding essential for your company?
• Ecommerce branding 101: Beyond logos and taglines
• Creating demand vs. capturing demand: A strategic pivot
• Pricing: how does it connect branding with people’s perception?
• Measuring the impact of branding
• Marketing channels to implement ecommerce branding strategies
• Why is product positioning important? 
• Final word

Why is ecommerce branding essential for your company?

The focus of ecommerce branding is to build an experience around the product— creating a storyline where users are the main characters. The story is narrated from the time a user comes in contact with the product, interacts with it, makes a purchase, and the experience beyond. 

How this story unfolds determines the success of new customer acquisition. Let’s see how ecommerce branding influences the presence of your company:

1. Building a sense of trust and credibility: The entire online experience is based on trust. This is why you may find it easier to place an order without much thought on Amazon as opposed to placing an order for the same product on an unknown website. 

This is primarily due to Amazon building a decade-long worth of trust and ecommerce giant defining and refining their brand using insights from the repeated user experience. The sense of trust that an experience fosters, results in customer loyalty, hence, the brand, with the experience it provides, mitigates the customer’s chances of reaching out for a replacement brand.

2. Stand out in a crowded market: Thousands of ecommerce brands are competing for attention, an adept ecommerce branding strategy can help you better position your brand and help businesses scale effectively.

Retaining customers in a saturated market is not a cakewalk— but good ecommerce branding can seem to make it appear seamless. 

We all know how saturated the beauty industry is right now. And it has been so for quite some time. Back in 2015 when Kylie Cosmetics launched their lip kit, the market was not much different. But with her excellent personal branding and lip contouring techniques she convinced her followers that one swipe of color-coordinated lipliner and lipstick can alter their facial proportion!

And that’s how she re-marketed a simple lip liner and lipstick combo as lip-surgery in a bottle which eventually became a 29 million USD business in 2024.

3. Bonding and beyond: Even if you only consider product quality, there can be a few competing with your product at the back of consumers’ minds. The one that a customer finally goes for has crossed several mental sieving. But once you establish a connection with the customers, game over for your competitors! 

You can deeply weave stories to have them connect better, maybe by creating childhood nostalgia or tapping into a common agenda to keep sustainability in mind. You’re basically letting emotions do the job for you while you offer some quality products. 

Allbirds— a sustainable footwear brand that markets itself as the most comfortable shoemaker in the world. By using eco conscious materials such as merino wool, eucalyptus fibers, and sugarcane fiber they manufacture their unique set of products which is not just durable but higher in sentimental value. Whenever a consumer sees Allbirds sneakers among a bunch of other sneaker brands, it reinforces the environment-conscious persona that he recognizes himself with. And that’s how Allbirds bonded with eco-conscious shoppers.

4. Maximize perceived value: If a story is strong enough it can give the audience a whole new perspective of the brand. Ecommerce branding can elevate the overall brand presence and perceived value— making people increase their budget to be able to afford the brand. 

Familiarity can also influence customers to pay more than usual by tapping into the desire to replicate their previous satisfactory experience. We will touch upon this in our upcoming segments.

5. Resilience against competitor strategies: To compete with emerging ecommerce brands and competitors attempting rebranding, it is essential to put up a strong front. This can be built by strengthening the brand presence without cutting down on prices. In some cases, discounted pricing can give a brand an angle of degrading quality. Standing your ground and aligning with the branding across business strategies are essential for ecommerce branding.

A strong brand presence created using ecommerce branding best practices is crucial for improving search rankings on ecommerce platforms. This is because a prominent presence results in algorithmic favorability improving search rankings and conversion rates.

Ecommerce branding 101: Beyond logos and taglines

While logos and taglines occupy a significant part of an ecommerce branding strategy, their primary goal is to make a mark in the established market. While the tagline is the first step to introducing a brand’s tone or persona, logos are meant to complement them. 

It can either be directed to a statement they stand by or these catchy taglines embed the idea into audiences’ minds. 

This plays into enhancing memorability, which taps into customer recall, as they are about to make a purchase. Witty or emotional, what lingers in their minds stays with them. 

Let us now look beyond the obvious and see what all it takes to nail the branding strategy for ecommerce.

Establish distinct and purposeful styles

A brand is built upon a core identity more than a fleeting trend. The identity will come from what the brand stands for, which will define a user’s experience with its offerings. Its authenticity is what appeals to buyers. 

To tap into that authenticity, understand what your audiences expect and in what ways it resonates with them. In addition, communicative UX and compelling website copies can turn a simple swipe into successful sales.

So as you find yourself a distinct style that resonates with the audience, they see a reflection of their nature in your products creating a bond. This is why creating a brand-first approach leads to consistent success in business. In short, when you stand out you get noticed. This recognition pushes it forward into taking over the crowd. 

Take Gymshark for example. They are not adapting to fleeting trends to chase newer crowds. Instead, they focus on enhancing their unique identity and functionality. They developed an identity around fitness that grew into a lifestyle while consistently delivering quality and performance. As you can see in this example how they relate fitness with a lifestyle and they’re incorporating it as a ‘gift of progress’ for the holiday season. This UX copy is particularly directed toward fitness enthusiasts creating a straightforward branding strategy. We can also highlight the fact that having a clear foundation that focuses on a lifestyle choice, makes it easier for Gymshark to create seasonal campaigns. 

Color theory to subliminally capture customer’s attention

In branding, colors speak more than words; they are capable of manipulating human minds. For example, you’ll see restaurant chains using the color red in their branding. This is because according to color psychology, red can stimulate the feeling of hunger leading to increased sales. 

Choosing a distinct color palette can help brands build an identity around it. The storefronts should emulate the same colour scheme creating consistency in experience and adding a professional look to it. Take a look at this to understand how to effectively use color theory to generate certain emotions among your customers.

Colors can also add a dash of uniqueness to a brand’s identity. For instance, an ecommerce branding example at its finest would be Kim Kardashian, as she herself is one. In 2019, launched her shapewear brand, Skims, which strategically incorporated her signature neutral color palette into their ecommerce branding across multiple platforms. While the brand aimed to stick to neutrals, they incorporated racial inclusivity by featuring 9 different shades of skin. 

Of course, it resonated greatly with her audience across all races who are not just familiar with her personal style but share the same taste. Her personal branding for more than a decade has been around the same colors. 

Over time it became a fashion statement on which, now Kim is capitalizing. Needless to say, this synergetic approach and the accessibility made the shapewear brand popular among her followers. The cohesive color-focused ecommerce branding connected the brand’s purpose with Kim’s highly sought-after styles and skyrocketing market reach. 

Embrace storytelling connecting more deeply

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.”

— Seth Godin

When it comes to ecommerce branding, storytelling is a powerful tool used to humanize the brand. This determines how easily the brand can bond with customers. Otherwise, being straight-up factual will not tap into their desire like a relatable storyline would. 

Storytelling may include describing a product, the brand’s origin story, the thought behind the product,  where it is crafted, etc. This, ultimately, adds depth to its mere existence making simple appear extraordinary. 

Limit the specifications and focus more on making people envision how their lives will revolve around it. 

Imagine the same nighttime face cream being marketed as 

1. Retinol night cream for anti-ageing 

or

2. Just arrived from Geneva, waiting to reach your vanity. Wake up with plump skin every morning with our new retinol and peptide complex emulsion. 

Which one sounds more appealing to you? Of course, the second. Because when you read it you should not visualize the retinol cream but the benefit of waking up with plump skin. 

You not only get to know about the nature, the chemistry, and the place of origin of the product but also the fact that it is catered to your cosmetic needs.

So start with assessing the desires and pain points of users. Be creative, describe a scenario where the products can add value, and present it to the customers using the same storyline. As simple as that!

Use high-quality visuals to increase brand recall

This visual engagement is essential in today’s crowded marketplace, where consumers are bombarded with numerous advertisements daily.

High-quality images are more than just aesthetically pleasing. It plays a major role in embedding into people’s minds and it becomes easier for them to recall the brand by its appearance. It plays a crucial role in ecommerce branding as these days people go through hundreds of options before selecting one. After all, consumers these days find random advertisements an eyesore.

Among a sea of several average-quality pictures, one with high definition (image or video format) makes the most impact. It can also have its influence while trying to capture attention and divert it towards gathering more social media engagement. 

Sellers can benefit from it as customers, once interacting with their social media handles tend to build a better connection, leading to purchasing decisions, thus effortlessly driving sales. 

High-quality visuals across a multi-channel online presence reinforce brand identity by stressing consistency in design, color schemes, etc.  

Headout, an online tour booking platform that does an excellent job leveraging high quality videos and images. Their landing pages include captivating video snippets of top tourist attractions from an experiencer’s perspective giving site visitors a taste and longing for these destinations. They played it cool and let the visuals do all the talking. So when they say they provide the “world’s best experiences”, they don’t just say it, they show it.

Speak the language of your audience

“Speak to your audience in their language about what’s in their heart.” A quote to live by when it comes to ecommerce branding. The only way to be heard is to speak the language the audience understands. Ecommerce branding principles are rooted in the concept of speaking directly to the customers, and in the conversation addressing their specific issues, choices, values, etc. Once you get to know them it would be easier to curate a personalized experience for their demographics. 

This information will help in developing target messaging for the ideal customer demographics building trust and striking a chord with them. Once this connection is established roads of communication open up seamlessly. Now when the potential customers are vibing at the same frequency as the brand messaging, they are naturally motivated to try your products.

Feedback adaptation is another major way of connecting with the audience as well. 

Ever had a disconnect with a friend and later when you both resolve the issues, you feel like your bond strengthened due to open communication? Something similar happens when ecommerce brands incorporate valid feedback from customers to come up with services that are more aligned with their specific needs. You don’t just speak their language but you understand and take inspired actions to curate better products.

Drunk Elephant is a skincare brand that caters to ingredient-conscious beauty enthusiasts. Hence, they use phrases like “biocompatible skincare” or “skin care smoothies” to emphasize the simplicity of ingredients used in a way that speaks to their target audience.

Be one with a cause 

In a business model such as ecommerce, customers are always in the shadow of the product’s origin. In this case, the more a brand becomes successful in fostering transparency among consumers, (about the sourcing, manufacturing, etc.) and upholding standards of social responsibility, the more likely they are to stand out and get noticed. By supporting such brands customers feel like they are becoming a part of the cause which instantly gives them a sense of fulfillment, tying the brand and the customer together. They become advocates of the cause and consequently the brand.

Among hair care brands that are blatantly testing on animals, Function of Beauty and Ethique are cruelty-free, so they do not test their products on animals. They stand by their nature and stay true to it. When people reach out for their products they attribute this quality (of being kind to animals)to themselves, creating a bond based on shared value.

Brand guidelines to remain consistent across all channels

The cohesiveness in the visual elements and messaging when combined with multi-platform consistency gives a seamless brand identity. This unified approach boosts recognition and makes an undeniable impact on users’ minds. Eventually the aesthetics and color start carrying the brand identity so much so that the audience recalls the brand even with the slightest visual hints. This is closely tied to its color and logo but most importantly stresses professionalism. 

Creating demand vs. capturing demand: A strategic pivot

There are two phases of successful ecommerce branding. Stirring up the demand and preying on it to capture the anticipation. This usually happens within a stipulated time frame to get the best impact. Let’s see how we justify this strategy.

Creating demand: The buzz before the launch

The brands bringing a banging entry to the market turning heads, and converting audiences have one thing in common. They build the tension before they plan a launch. To create demand, Brands, typically, start by sparking interest, almost compelling the audience to hit search. And as soon as you’ve evoked curiosity in your audience, you’ve already managed to walk half the mile. 

You pre-sell the product before you lure them in with affordability and convenience. An alternate way of building a connection with your audience. 

Creating demand and running ads is like meeting halfway to approach successful ecommerce branding. When conversion rates are high due to massive curiosity, paying for ads becomes a walk in the park. 

Wait wait, it may sound like an easy solution to make a mark but practically speaking, it is not. It’s a long-term strategic approach that requires multiple trials and errors and a solid vision to hit the mark without going astray. 

So, how to stir up demand in the market?

Tap into your audiences’ aspirations and requirements using the correct channels to reach them effectively. Understanding their digital behavior is the foundation of a successful ecommerce branding execution. Act upon it and make it resonate with your branding. We have dedicated a separate section only to how to broadcast these branding efforts. 

For example, you can use the reach of influencers to promote your brand if your idea customers spend more time in social media channels— but before that make sure their influencer image/persona is aligned to your brand. (You don’t want comedian Uncle Roger Promoting your Whitelabel solutions!)

Sure, it’s a time-consuming organic process, but it also makes your brand immune to fluctuations in paid ad policies or search trends. An authentic brand presence created organically can be resilient and pay off in the long term. 

Capturing demand: Strike the iron while it’s hot

Capturing attention makes your business more future-proof compared to mastering algorithms. The focus of ecommerce branding should be directed toward influencing the market and just not generating sales. Once you ignite the demand, the path to sustaining a loyal customer base is unlocked as much as the sales potential is streamlined. 

Keep nurturing the relationship with your customer base; with a 4-second attention span, it is easy to lose them to new or rebranded competitors. Use real-time data analytics to help you refine your strategies for consistency and help you know how to build ecommerce brand in a market where it is anticipated. Demand generation may contain all the hyped strategies, but a lasting connection can help you thrive in the ever-changing e-commerce marketplace. 

Pricing: how does it connect branding with people’s perception?

Let’s explore some complex concepts on how branding ties into pricing. It is a major aspect that governs the purchasing pattern of consumers and the branding strategy for ecommerce businesses.

Pricing as a Brand Signal

Pricing determines a brand’s perceived value staging them as superior in quality and prestige. Hence we come across the term ‘Prestige pricing’ to make your products look and feel more luxurious. It’s a theory that explains how people consider a costlier product as richer in quality and regard— which directly impacts a buyer’s perception of yourself as someone capable of possessing it. 

To make it more accessible to the masses playing on its affordability is the correct move. So maybe you can use a ‘charm pricing’ strategy. Instead of selling a pair of boots at $120, you can keep it at $118.99. You’ll hardly find an ecommerce branding strategy that does not put charm pricing into practice.

Market strategy to maintain brand positioning

The strategies we just spoke about must be in harmony with the brand positioning you are planning for the brand. The associated branding elements, in this case, must align with the price that you have set. 

For example, if you’re planning to launch a luxury eyewear line, the logo, design, color palette, and font should speak of luxury and not just the price. Imagine selling Rolex in McDonald’s packaging. Yes, that’s how absurd it plays out!

That is where market segmentation comes into play. As it reinforces the identity of the product in a marketplace. 

Yes, you may try to bring innovation to the existing products in the market while you build an ecommerce brand, but keep in mind that the prices should not sway far from the competitors’ pricing. For example, this is why you see the prices of a 50 gm tube of toothpaste set so closely all across brands in an aisle.

Customer loyalty and brand equity

The pricing strategy must be cohesive with the brand’s messaging or what it stands for in general. A quality product is capable of justifying its market rates and thus comes the concept of brand equity. It shapes how people’s perception of a brand changes over time.

We have seen brands that started frequent discounting to foster the idea of volume sales but they often end up failing because they may end up shaking up the perceived value of the product, resulting in affected brand equity. 

Strategic pricing adjustments

Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) is a commonly used strategy by companies to maintain their brand image. It is done by enforcing a limit to discounts, to maintain a consistency between its discounted value and perceived value. By applying this strategy when you build an ecommerce brand it does a favor to your multi-channel presence where the prices are maintained linearly.

Measuring the impact of branding

You can try out all the strategies under the sun but gauging its effectiveness will tell you which one to stick to. Here’s a detailed list of metrics you can use to evaluate the success of an ecommerce branding campaign:

1. Brand awareness

Brand awareness defines the familiarity of your target audience with your brand. We can measure it using customer surveys, and blog or social media traffic. Social listening tools or tools that highlight search volume like Google Trends can also help in this case.

2. Brand perception

Brand perception defines how your brand is received by your target audience. Sentiment analysis tools such as Repustate, Sprout Social, Awario, and Brandwatch can give you a solid understanding of your brand perception across social media users. 

3. User engagement

User engagement measures the interaction between customers and your brand across different platforms. Email open rates, social media interactions, and website traffic measurement can help you have a deeper understanding of user engagement. 

4. Brand equity

Brand equity measures the immeasurable qualitative aspects of your brand, considering recognition, and loyalty. Positive brand equity means the brand is well-liked by the audience, which can result in increased sales or customer retention. Customer-inclined surveys or brand valuation techniques are an ideal solution to gauge brand equity. 

7. Market differentiation

As we have already mentioned, market differentiation is the way your brand stands out from the competitors. It is best measured by market shares and market research to understand customer preference.

8. Financial performance

Financial performance is a direct reflection of the success of branding techniques applied. Major profit indicators such as profit margins, customer acquisition costs, return on investment (ROI), etc. can measure financial performance. 

Marketing channels to implement ecommerce branding strategies

We are mentioning the major media channels in which these ecommerce branding elements are scattered for the best impact on users. You may have the best practices implemented in your branding, but unless they reach the correct audience, we cannot consider the ecommerce branding journey a successful one. 

Content marketing

Content marketing is capable of giving a brand an entirely new direction. Imagine being a home decor brand— once you start publishing valuable blog posts like ‘How to elevate your balcony in 10 different ways’ or ‘Top 10 must-haves for your powder room’ it will not only solve a problem but keep the customer coming back for more such ideas, consistently over a period of time. 

There is a massive opportunity to push products from your home decor brand into these articles, convincing them to buy them for their home. You can add the above-mentioned tools and tactics to your blog post to polish your ecommerce branding presence. 

Content marketing adds value and enhances visual branding strategies.

SEO

Be it landing pages for websites or blog posts, you need SEO optimization by your side to optimize visibility, increase successful sales, and appear more valuable to your customer base. Websites that rank higher are more likely to be perceived as more credible. By driving targeted traffic, it enhances visibility so that your branding efforts do not go unnoticed.

While businesses strategize their ecommerce branding, with SEO marketing techniques they get easily chosen by genuine customers with serious purchase intent. 

Social media

Social media has a grip on the modern-day customer base. What drives social media is quick, concise, yet impactful content. Creatively include customer reviews and their interaction with the product to resonate with more customers. 

Social media engagement is pretty easy to track with tools like Meta Ads Manager. Consistency of social media posts is one of the major factors in remaining relevant among users. Through social media, people get a sneak peek into the brand’s values, and personality, which in essence reinforces a connection with the brand. 

Email marketing

When we mentioned the importance of consistency, the same holds true for the voice across email messaging. It’s an excellent way to build engagement and quickly gauge its effectiveness with simple opening rate metrics such as subscribe/ unsubscribe rates, email open rates, etc. 

You have the option to browse through customers’ purchasing behavior and come up with personalized communication to appeal to them. Brand email templates reflect brand visuals and personalized messages, and you can also choose to include links to blog posts and infographics. 

By using services like Mailchimp or Klaviyo you can create captivating email templates with absolute ease.

Why is product positioning important? 

Product positioning holds the power to carry forward consumer’s perception of the product in the marketplace. It is an extra step to make your ecommerce branding strategy prominent. It should be such that it highlights its best features, focuses on its identity, and helps people identify how the product adds value to the users. 

Let us take you through why product positioning plays a crucial role in ecommerce branding:

Differentiation in a competitive landscape

As a consumer, you might have noticed the overcrowding of the marketplace. So much so that at times the decision fatigue overtakes your requirements. This is because none of these brands successfully appealed to you or made itself stand out of the crowd. 

Now as a business owner, you would want to run away from the thoughts of being with the competing crowd. If you think top-notch product quality can replace your position in the market, you’re mistaken; good ecommerce branding blends your product with the customer’s lifestyle so that it doesn’t blend in the crowd with other competitors. 

Strategic product positioning enables the brand to carve out its distinct identity in consumer’s life displaying its USP.  

Let us explain how. This is widely noticed among the influencer marketing campaigns of Glossier. If you’re wondering how to build an ecommerce brand, we’d want you to learn from their story. 

Among a myriad of beauty and personal care products, Glossier made its positioning strong appealing to the young GenZ crowd with its “skin first, makeup second” approach. The brand philosophy is highly aligned with the recent practice of embracing your skin, setting it apart from the competitors who are spreading the message of glamour and aspirational beauty standards.

Targeted marketing 

When you develop a product you’re pretty much clear about your target audience— it can be a niche product or can cater universally. Product positioning gives direction to the brand’s message to be directed toward what resonates with your target audience. By getting to know your audience in depth you can be precise enough with your approach. 

We’ll explain with an example. 

Chewy’s target marketing hits a home run when it comes to appealing to pet owners. Their approach is to not just bring products, but the emotional response and portrayal of care and responsibility for the fur babies. From handwritten notes to the pet parents and active involvement with them via calls, Chewy has positioned itself as a brand that cares for your pets, generating massive trust among pet owners. As a result, PetSmart acquired it back in 2017 for $3.35 billion!

Clarity of value proposition

We as humans tend to be visual thinkers. So when we are presented with a thought, well demonstrated, we adapt it quickly as if it is ours. 

Thus, product positioning holds immense value. It helps people generate a sense of perception about the brand almost guided by the picture the ecommerce branding imposes on them. Product positioning goes beyond explaining what the product is about and explains where it fits. This clarity helps them visualize their life with the product ultimately making a purchase decision. When from hundreds of other listings the customer picks your product, that’s where the lingering effects of storytelling give you a silent edge.

Final word

Ecommerce branding holds immense weight because it keeps adding to the profit-making potential of the business over time. It gives the brand a direction and a motto to operate on. 

This structured growth gives ecommerce businesses the solid foundation they need. 

Use effective ecommerce branding to emphasize your product’s USPs that create a lasting impact throughout the customer’s journey and across touchpoints.  

Additional Readings:

15 E-commerce Marketing Strategy: Driving Growth in a Digital Marketplace

Artificial Intelligence in E-commerce: How AI is Changing Online Shopping For the Better

AI Chatbot for Ecommerce: Top 5 Bots to Drive Business Growth

Top 10 Essential Ecommerce Pricing Strategies To Beat Your Competition

 

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