How to Build A Great Retail Brand Online

“In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not

standing out is the same as being invisible.”- Seth Godin

The retail world is experiencing a digital boom across domains. In India,

in the last decade over 100,000 merchants have come online to sell on

different marketplaces. At the same time, the space gave an opportunity to

new brands to emerge online and scale to the

extent of opening offline stores as well. Several

online first fashion private labels like Faballey,

Freecultr, StalkBuyLove etc. have been able to

cut out a niche for themselves and gained loyal

users.

Fashion & electronics are the hottest selling

categories online, and hence, there is a lot of

competition among retailers in these sectors.

Irrespective of the age, scale or nature of your

retail business, it is not sufficient to just list

your products on marketplaces or set up your own

store, building a brand and growing it requires

a strategy. Here are a few things you should get in place to create lifetime

customer value

1. Proper Logo

A professionally designed logo that is in sync with your brand’s outlook

is a must. You don’t have to go overboard with the design, but ensure that

it is unique and enables instantaneous recollection of what your brand stands

for.

Check how eCommerce marketplace Flipkart has evolved its logo over 10 years.

Even post becoming a successful brand, it had launched logo 5 in Mid 2015,

as its app icon too, to keep brand identity in line with the targeted

perception.

Target group is also an important factor to keep in mind while designing your

logo.

2. Unique Product Offering

Consider a sample scenario where a customer logs onto Amazon to buy a pair

of headphones. Searching for the keyword ‘Headphones’ displays over

700,000 results! Even with the filters, it is still a daunting task for a

user to sift through so many products. Now imagine how hard would it be for

you make a sale if your products are looking like rest of the lot.

For those with their own manufacturing, you can experiment with design and

product features to stand out. And if you are a curator of products on a

standalone website, make technology your strength by giving an amazing

browsing, buying and delivery experience.

3. Seamless Web Store Design & Experience

The ‘e’ in eCommerce stands for electronic, it stands for technology.

Unless you are selling only on marketplaces, your own website plays a crucial

role in driving sales. On one hand, the design & look and feel should be

consistent with your brand persona, and on the other the backend should be

robust enough to deliver a smooth experience. Check with your IT head or your

vendor (In case of hosting on a SaaS platform) about reducing website load

time, crashes and how you can make it more seamless.

Look in the above image how the ethnic design brand has added intricacies

in the menu, and the text in the search bar to match the brand perception

it wants to make.

4. Engage With Social Media

Facebook is a useful marketing tool when it comes to retail branding. Posting

pictures of your products is a common practice among brands. However, you

can go a step further and create or curate engaging posts that keep your

prospects interested in your brand.

Encourage your customers to leave reviews and feedback on your page after

they have made a purchase.

If you have your own online store, place a Facebook like box there, an existing

user base could act as a source of credibility for a first time user.

Fashion retailers could also leverage Instagram to engage with their

customers and learn what all products do they like. Starting a poll or a

hashtag opinion campaign can encourage new users to interact with your brand.

5. Invest in Content

Not many retailers take having a blog seriously, more because they don’t

see an ROI beyond transactional conversions. This is changing now, blogging

not only about the products, but about trends and useful content that your

target audience would like to read. This helps in new user acquisition,

engaging existing user base and also provides you with content to fuel your

social media and search engine.

The above is a screenshot of fashion marketplace Jabong, which creates

engaging content coupled with product placement to give the readers a reason

to buy there itself.

6. Loyalty & Referral Programs

Cost of customer acquisition is high, hence having a customer retention

program becomes indispensable.

Create a loyalty system on your store to retain your buyers, rewarding them

on repeat purchases. Additionally have a referral system in place, where you

can give discounts and other incentives to your users for inviting their

friends, thus creating a chain potential prospects.

7. Amazing Packaging & Delivery Experience

Needless to say, order delivery experience makes a lot of difference to

whether you’ll be hearing from that customer again or not. On time fast

delivery is mandatory while running an eCommerce business. Additionally,

depending upon how much your budget permits, try to customise the product

packaging according to your brand design.

Marketplace retailers can have their own packaging below the standardized

covers they use. Before packing any product, ensure that it is in pristine

condition with all original labels & tags intact.

8. Accurate & Transparent Information

While listing a product, try to give out as much information you can to help

the customer buy the product confidently and not get any hidden surprises

on delivery. For instance, for electronic goods, it is important to mention

about the warranty details for each product. In case there isn’t a warranty

isn’t applicable, mention that clearly as well.

While a happy customer might shy from writing a good review, an unhappy

customer will ensure that others know about the bad experience. Tell

customers both the positives and what to expect from the product. This

practice will also lower your return rate.

9. Know Your Customer & Personalize

Most importantly, know who your customers are and what do they want. You may

have your own line of wonderful toys for kids, but your buyer certainly are

their parents. Align your brand communication with your TG, learn about their

purchasing habits by keeping data at your end.

Amazon has successfully created a personalisation & targeting engine model.

You however, can quickly start by using browser cookies to show your users

what they’d like to see each time they visit.

Are you also planning to take your retail brand online? Share your plan with

us at, writetous@purplestores.in

About Purple Stores:

Purple Stores is a eCommerce website solutions company specifically for the

Indian Merchants. It allows them to run their own branded online store with

ease even while selling on multiple channels. Apart from on demand technical

support, it allows gives an access to services like catalog development,

logistics support and internet marketing. To try out Purple Stores for your

business for free, visit: http://www.purplestores.in