In a crowded online marketplace, having a strong brand identity can set your online store and social media channels apart from your competitors.
But what is your brand? And how do you figure out what ecommerce branding strategy will resonate with your target audience?
In the early 20th century, legacy brands like Coca-Cola and Procter and Gamble defined branding as an act of emphasizing the functional benefits of the product.
The hope was that speaking about a product’s quality would help build trust and a strong reputation with potential customers.
However, in the 1960s, the idea of branding began to evolve.
Rather than focusing on a product’s functional benefits, branding became more about the social aspects it could provide.
Holding a can of Coca-Cola became more of a status symbol, and brands became a form of social currency for customers to express their values and personal aspirations.
Brand strategy became less about the functional benefits of a product and more about the intangible feeling it would impart: whether it was happiness, instant sex appeal, or an aura of coolness hidden behind a veil of cigarette smoke.
Branding is often mistaken for a company logo, an attractive color palette, or nice typography.
Although all these things can contribute to how a brand is perceived, branding is so much more than a collection of design elements.
It’s all about how you are making the customer feel every time they interact with your brand and forming a strong bond with the intended target market.
What is Ecommerce Branding?
It makes sense to first define what a brand is. Let’s hear it from someone who built one of the biggest brands in the world:
A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn a reputation by trying to do hard things well.
Jeff Bezos
So, your brand is what other people think of your business. So, first you have to get them to think about you in the first place.
That’s where ecommerce branding comes in. It’s the work you put into 1) getting the world to think about you and 2) getting the world to think your brand is rad and worth handing cash to.
Taking the effort to build a strong brand is a critical part of your ultimate success.
Not only will it help capture a potential customer’s attention, but it will also keep them hooked and, ideally, make them become your brand advocates (literally wearing the T-shirt).
Really, your brand is everything! It includes:
- Your brand story with a unique selling proposition. What makes your ecommerce business different or special from other competitors in your market?
- What customers are saying about you. How are customers talking about your ecommerce store on social media and in online forums? Are they raving about their customer experience?
- How your employees feel about the brand. Does your team identify with the brand mission? Does it motivate them to bring their best selves to work?
- How your competitors talk about you. Do your rivals envy the way you can connect with your customers or create hilarious/thought-provoking/exciting content?
None of this happens by accident.
It takes a dedicated effort with various components and consistency to go from a mere business that sells online to an ecommerce brand. Which brings us to...
Key Elements of Successful Ecommerce Branding
Building a brand is an implicit suggestion that you want to grow it into a household name.
You have aspirations for your ecommerce brand, and you want your logo to lodge itself into the consciousness of the consumer class (a la Nike, Coca Cola, and Amazon).
This aspiration will then drive you to funnel your creativity into developing out all the elements of your ecommerce brand. Let’s look at each brand element and what it entails.
Brand mission and vision
Your business aims to make money, sure, but that isn't your ultimate mission (hopefully). It most certainly can't be for the purpose of building a brand.
So, you first want to define what your business does, who you're doing it for, and why that matters. This is your mission—the thing you'll aim to accomplish with every working day.
Your mission statement should show up across all brand elements, even subconsciously.
Then, you want to speak to what your brand aspires to be, given the opportunity to grow and mature. This is your vision—the light at the end of the tunnel that motivates your mission.
This can be as concise or verbose as you like, as long as it's clear.
Take Patagonia, for example. Their mission and vision is laid out on their Our Core Values page, broken up into the categories of Quality, Integrity, Environmentalism, Justice, and Not bound by convention.
The bolded sentences clearly speak to what their mission and vision are.
Target audience
For your mission and vision to really hit their mark, they need an audience on the same wavelength. If you go after the wrong folks, you'll be starting off on the wrong foot from day one.
So, you have to understand the need your product is filling, who that most applies to, how your mission aligns with them, and what these people are like.
This is the part where you do homework—researching demographics, psychographics, pain points, preferences, etc. and building buyer personas that clearly lay out who your marketing will be landing with.
When a brand understands their ideal customer base, it shows, and business skyrockets.
Red Bull is a great example of a brand that knows who they're selling to—young people interested in extreme sports, adventure, and an active lifestyle. And, it's selling a lifestyle instead of an energy drink.
Brand positioning
Your brand doesn't exist in isolation. It'll have to contend with other brands trying to do the same thing. So, you need to position yourself to stand out.
You'll want to do lots of competitor research at this stage, asking yourself several questions that'll clarify where you can position yourself. Those questions could include:
- What do your competitors all have in common?
- What do they do exceedingly well?
- Where are they lacking?
- What are their customers' biggest pain points, and how well are they addressing them?
- What are their brand positioning strategies? How do they present their value proposition?
- How are they perceived by customers on social media and review sites?
- What are your unique selling propositions (USPs)? How do these make you the clear frontrunner compared with your competitors?
- Where can you differentiate yourself in terms of product features, customer experience, or brand messaging?
As you answer these questions, you'll quickly find your points of differentiation.
Voice and personality
Just as we humans have our unique personalities and particular ways of talking, so should brands. It's the humanizing element, allowing your brand to connect with its audience.
Obviously, the voice and personality come from the humans behind the brand to some degree, but it also depends on what you're selling and who you're selling to.
If you're selling moisturizing soap targeted at women—like Dove, for instance—a silly dad jokey voice won't endear the audience. But, that fits perfectly for a brand like Chubbies, which sells shorts and other apparel to guys.
So, look back to your buyer personas, your mission and vision, your positioning, and your product line, then find the type of personality that will best represent your overall brand.
When complete, this voice and personality should be consistently applied across every customer-facing channel for a fully omnichannel shopping experience.
Brand story
With everything you've put together so far—mission and vision locked, audience targeted, positioning found, and personality assembled—you can start building the story of your brand.
Storytelling is essential for connecting with your audience. Humans have been using stories for millennia to form bonds, maintain histories, and teach valuable skills.
For your brand, this is your opportunity to connect emotionally with your potential customers. Often, this is the founder's journey, which interweaves the brand's values and central purpose into their success story.
Ice cream enthusiasts might really connect with the groovy beginnings of Ben & Jerry's in a Burlington, Vermont gas station:
Their About Us page goes on to lay out the timeline that leads to them becoming household names in the world of ice cream and social causes.
Visual identity
As you can see, all these elements build on each other. They're interdependent, becoming a brand mosaic when complete.
The visual identity brings all the little intangible things together to form a consistent look easily identifiable with your brand.
This brand image includes your logo design, color palette, illustration style, imagery, and typography (or fonts, digitally). With these in place, your audience can easily recognize your brand, positively associating it with all other elements you've built.
Here are two of the strongest examples I could think of—Apple and Nike.
Messaging
An outgrowth from the voice and personality you've developed for the brand, your messaging is the next step.
It formalizes the broad definition of your voice into specific taglines, slogans, and key messages used consistently across your sales and ecommerce marketing channels. This creates the foundation for all your digital marketing campaigns.
For instance, Nike's "Just Do It" tagline is iconic, but it was developed through a lot of great marketing work. The number of taglines they threw out to get to those three words had to be huge.
Brand guidelines
Finally, it all comes together in your brand guidelines (AKA your style guide). After you've settled on all the elements of your branding, you put it all in one easily referenced place.
It becomes the go-to resource both internally and externally for how your brand looks and sounds. That way, you can maintain consistency across all touchpoints, which is valuable as your touchpoints multiply (and sales follow).
Your brand guidelines will include things like your logos, your color palette, your typography, tone of voice dos and don'ts, messaging rules, and more.
With all that under your belt, let's talk about KPIs...
Ecommerce Branding KPIs for Measuring Your Success
To measure the effectiveness of your ecommerce branding efforts, you need to track specific metrics. It can’t be all about vibes, man. Find your baseline numbers and you'll be able to watch your branding work pay off.
Here are the main KPIs to consider:
- Brand awareness: Measures how well-known your brand is within your target market. Metrics include website traffic, social media mentions, and brand search volume.
- Conversion rate: Represents the percentage of visitors who take a desired action (e.g., making a purchase). A strong brand can improve conversion rates by building trust and credibility.
- Customer loyalty (retention): Assesses how well your brand retains customers over time. Metrics like repeat purchase rate, customer lifetime value (CLV), and subscription renewals help measure brand loyalty.
- Customer sentiment: Analyzes how customers feel about your brand. Social listening platforms and customer feedback surveys can help you gauge brand sentiment.
- Social media engagement: Tracks how actively your audience interacts with your brand on social media channels. Metrics include likes, comments, shares, and follower growth.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures customer satisfaction and loyalty by asking how likely customers are to recommend your brand to others. A higher NPS indicates a stronger brand.
By tracking these KPIs, you can assess how effectively your branding resonates with your audience and identify areas for improvement.
6 Ecommerce Branding Strategies to Elevate Your Brand
As someone clever once said, it takes 20 years to build a reputation but five minutes to ruin it.
Your brand is your baby, so treat it like you would a child (i.e., nurture and protect it at all costs).
1. Understand your target audience and brand identity
If you’re struggling to understand your target audience, I would recommend reading AND1’s brand history.
Most notably about how AND1 sought to dethrone Nike in the shoe industry with their grassroots footwear and clothing brand.
It’s the typical David and Goliath story that has us rooting for the underdog.
With a shoestring budget (no pun intended), AND1 knew that they had to zero in on their niche and market their brand in a way that didn’t drive them into debt.
Instead of putting out splashy billboards and filming expensive commercials, they focused on finding the best streetball players in major U.S. cities and handed out a mixtape (a short highlight reel set to music) that combined their love for hip hop and streetball.
AND1 understood that they weren’t trying to reach the masses.
They were trying to reach a very specific target audience and were able to form an emotional connection they needed to be seen as an organic part of the streetball community.
Their mixtapes became a coveted item since they stirred up a conversation, turned local talent into streetball heroes, and had NBA players copying their moves.
What started as a mixtape became a multi-city tour across the US, called the AND1 Tour, where local ballers would compete with each other in different cities, making it one of the hottest events and eventually filling stadiums like Madison Square Garden.
Not only were they adding something fresh to the conversation, but all these tactics aligned with their brand identity: streetball was an art, a performance.
And we celebrate creativity and spontaneity.
Through their efforts, they were able to position themselves as a brand for the people and gained loyal customers across the country and then worldwide.
2. Have a brand story worth telling and sharing on social media
Too Good To Go is an app I’ve been using a lot lately. With inflation being at an all-time high, any chance to save on groceries and takeout is an automatic yes from me.
But what sets this brand apart is its social mission.
In an effort to reduce food waste, this social impact startup partnered with local restaurants and grocery stores that will offer nearly expired food at a discount.
Rather than throw it away, anyone with the app can show up and save on their food bills!
Have a peek at Too Good To Go’s brand message.
This "Why It Matters" section provides a summary of the problem (food waste) and how their app solves this problem (saving on delicious, unsold food).
Not only are they passing on these savings to the customer, but they’re also inviting users to join an anti-food waste movement.
Not only do I feel good about saving a few dollars, but I also feel great about helping the planet as well.
For those who care about sustainability and the environment, this does a fantastic job of building a positive relationship with a brand.
The checkout process is fast and easy, plus pickups are convenient. And all items are put into surprise bags, so you never know exactly what you will get, allowing them to delight their customers.
Their brand message is not only something I identify with, but it's also one I'm happy to share with others on social media. I like to know that I'm "doing good," and many others feel the same.
We are being rewarded twofold: By satiating our appetite and helping make the world a better place.
3. Create a brand color palette and typography
Once you know what audience you are trying to reach and the story you want to tell now is the time to start building out your brand persona and set some style guidelines for what your brand is all about.
Try asking yourself what your brand is not or how you want your brand to make others feel.
If you are a meditation coach, perhaps you would want to go with a calming blue tone to match your services. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Orange comes off as more playful and energizing.
Having a clear idea of what values you want to convey will make creating a logo and developing a brand voice and design guide more clear-cut.
If you are still in the early stages of deciding what your brand should look like (or if you are in the middle of a rebrand), a great way to decide your brand color palette is to use a tool like Coolors, which allows you to create a color scheme easily, taking the guesswork out of what your primary and secondary brand colors should be.
Color templates can be downloaded and saved for future reference.
Example: Chamberlain Coffee's playful aesthetic
Let’s look at a successful brand like Chamberlain Coffee, for instance, a business venture started by popular Youtuber and influencer Emma Chamberlain.
This L.A.-based ecommerce business gives the public a chance to buy high-quality coffee that is sustainably sourced and “doesn't feel pretentious” compared to other coffee brands.
Their ecommerce website pops with playful and fun colors but is still clean and easy to navigate.
And the packaging features multiple different colors with images of cartoon animals sipping their morning brew, adding to the brand’s playful aura.
Their chosen colors and imagery do a brilliant job of marketing toward a younger demographic, and the brand feels like a very natural extension of Emma Chamberlain, who often talks about her love for coffee on her social media channels.
4. Form connections online (or offline) for your ecommerce business
Not all ecommerce branding needs to be done online.
Going offline and orchestrating meet-ups or events can help build a rapport with customers and allow for some face-to-face interaction.
Brands like Netflix often do activations to hype up their latest shows.
With their hit show Squid Game, a deadly Korean drama, the brand invested in different activations around the world to build hype and gave people a chance to immerse themselves by also becoming participants in the show's iconic games.
Providing an immersive brand experience can turn casual fans into super fans since they have now become part of the storytelling.
Participants were asked to post on social media to receive a branded gift.
How to run your own offline event
- Define your goals: Decide what you want to achieve—brand awareness, customer engagement, or product launch buzz. Clear goals will guide your event planning and help measure success.
- Plan the logistics: Choose a venue that aligns with your brand's vibe and is accessible to your audience. Arrange necessary permits, equipment, and staff well in advance.
- Create an experience: Design the event around a unique experience that ties into your brand story—something memorable that attendees will want to talk about. Think of interactive elements, live demos, or exclusive previews.
- Promote the event: Use social media, email marketing, and influencer collaborations to spread the word. Build anticipation with a sense of exclusivity—limited tickets or VIP access can add to the hype.
- Leverage social media during the event: Encourage attendees to share their experience in real time. Create a unique hashtag, set up photo opportunities, and offer incentives for posts—like branded swag or special discounts.
- Follow up after the event: Keep the momentum going. Send follow-up emails to thank attendees, share event highlights on your social channels, and continue the conversation to maintain engagement.
5. Deliver on your brand promise
Satisfaction guaranteed. This is a brand promise that a lot of ecommerce brands make to reduce the amount of risk from purchasing a product or service online.
Ecommerce brands like Casper, which focuses on all sleep essentials, offer customers a 100-night trial period to test out their bedding, mattress, and pillows so it can ensure that you get a good night’s sleep with their products.
For more tactile customers, getting a chance to test and feel a product before pulling the trigger can help foster a sense of trust.
They also give you an option of booking a nap appointment on their website at any of their brick-and-mortar locations, or you can chat with a Snooze Specialist in their instant messaging feature. The checkout process is easy to navigate and is transparent about extra fees for oversized items.
All of these thoughtful additions to their ecommerce website demonstrate that their brand is highly customer-oriented and makes their visitors feel safe in splurging for a sleep set.
This sort of user experience goes a long way to developing customer loyalty.
When it’s clear that a brand has a strong customer support system, customers can relax knowing that any questions they may have or assistance with returns and exchanges can be done painlessly, allowing Casper to deliver on their brand promise.
6. Reinvent yourself to survive
The best brands in the world understand that to remain at the top, reinventing yourself is a necessity.
When Nike was battling with streetwear brand AND1 for the attention of shoe fanatics, they decided to invest millions in a commercial to gain the public’s interest.
Their Freestyle commercial, featuring NBA superstars and up-and-comers, is now known as one of the most influential commercials that have been spoofed countless times.
The reception to the video was immediately praised for its creativity and nod to hip hop’s influence on streetball without uttering a single word.
Reflecting on your brand and what it stands for can also help you avoid the pitfalls of other brands that have succumbed to cancel culture or the "forgotten pile."
Customers are more savvy than ever, and ecommerce brands that don’t pass the brand name test won’t survive.
Think of a few brands you know and love and put their brand name into a search engine.
- What are customers saying about this brand?
- How are the online reviews?
- Are customers concerned about the quality of the product going downhill or less than responsive customer service, or is there currently a subreddit forum praising your latest product launch for being inclusive?
Keeping a pulse on what people are saying is key.
As your brand gains more recognition and more customers, it will become harder to steer the online conversation, so it helps to take a temperature check now and then to see if any pre-emptive measures need to take place.
Social listening tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can allow you to track all brand mentions across different social media platforms so you know if customer sentiment is changing for the worst or the better.
Using Omnichannel Storytelling for Brand Awareness
Ecommerce branding is all about omnichannel storytelling. Consistency across every channel is key to reinforcing your brand message and creating a seamless experience for customers.
Whether they're scrolling your Instagram feed, reading your emails, or shopping on your site, everything should feel unmistakably you. That’s brand recognition, baby.
When you nail this consistency, you make it easier for customers to recognize and remember you—building trust, engagement, and loyalty.
Top marketing channels for effective ecommerce branding
So, take your brand story and tell it clearly and consistently across every channel to stay top of mind:
- Social media. Social media platforms are your best bet for building brand awareness and creating relationships. Keep the visuals, tone, and messaging cohesive across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter to make your brand presence stick. Social is where you get to chat directly with customers, gather honest feedback, and show off your brand's personality in real time.
- Content marketing and SEO. Content marketing establishes you as the authority in your niche. Blog posts, videos, guides—these are all opportunities to provide value to your audience while reinforcing your brand’s unique perspective. And with SEO, you ensure that content surfaces when potential customers are actively searching, bringing your expertise right to their fingertips.
- Email marketing. Email is where you nurture those relationships and keep customers in the loop on new products, promotions, and more. It’s one-on-one time, so make it personal. Keep your emails aligned with your brand voice and look, and use them to drive loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.
- Influencer marketing. Teaming up with influencers who already vibe with your brand is like getting a warm introduction to a whole new crowd. Influencers add a layer of authenticity—when they genuinely endorse your products, their followers trust them, which boosts your brand visibility and credibility. This valuable user-generated content can be used as social proof across other channels for maximum effect.
- Paid ads. Paid ads—whether on Google, Facebook, or Instagram—let you target exactly who you want, right when you need them. Consistent visuals and messaging in these ads are key to keeping your brand identity intact while expanding your reach and driving conversions. While you pay for each click (or thousand views), paid ads are a powerful customer acquisition tool.
Ecommerce Branding is Worth the Investment
Building a strong ecommerce brand might seem like a big lift, but it's one of the smartest investments you can make for long-term success.
A brand story that’s well-defined now will save you from an identity crisis down the line—and help you stand out in a crowded market.
When your brand identity is on point, it forms an instant connection with customers and makes you unforgettable.
Whether you’re selling on Shopify, Amazon, or your own site, customers want to feel something when they engage with your brand.
They want to know what makes you different and why they should care. Lean into what makes your brand uniquely yours and communicate that story authentically across every touchpoint.
Make your audience feel like they're a part of something special. When done right, your story isn't just told—it’s shared, and maybe even goes viral.
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