how to build a great retail brand online
DESCRIPTION
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.inTRANSCRIPT
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, [email protected]
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