If there is one area of business which hasn’t been hampered by the recession it’s online retail.
And just like when any potential customer walks into a high street store, the first thing they will recognise is brand.
So why should your website be any different?
Brand awareness has been the cornerstone of retail for as long as anyone can remember and there isn’t a day that goes by when a marketing team doesn’t talk about brand loyalty.
The online supermarket
Ecommerce entrepreneurs have realised that familiarity is the key to increasing their sales, with many online store front pages resembling the entrance to Tesco
Ten years ago, when Great Britain first began shopping online, there was a huge difference between high street shops and online stores.
Before the days of PayPal and VeriSign and other forms of ecommerce security, consumers were fearful of entering their credit card details online.
Those times are long forgotten now as sleek web design, usability standards and new ways of advertising have narrowed the gap between walking down the high street and shopping online for goods.
Ecommerce entrepreneurs have realised that familiarity is the key to increasing their sales, with many online store front pages resembling the entrance to Tesco, complete with bright colours and special offers around the entrance and visible categories for the browser.
But as an interactive tool, a website takes this familiar element one step further, by allowing consumers to browse not by function or activity, but specifically by brand.
How do I promote brands in my online store?
At the basic level, allowing your customers to browse your products by brand is a good start.
You can provide someone with the most technical products at the cheapest prices, but if they know nothing about the brands, they are far less likely to make a purchase.
The true beauty of shopping online is how specific a search can be, which saves time compared to rummaging through the racks of TK Maxx.
So let’s say someone is searching for a new pair of running shoes in a well known online sports store.
They go to the running shoes section and find 1,000 styles to look through. Now that’s overwhelming for even the most web-savvy shopper and while your website may have filters in place to narrow down the results by size or colour, few customers tend to use them.
Now, let’s say someone is searching for a new pair of running shoes and goes to a brand-specific section of your site, like Saucony, a well-known running brand.
Instead of 1,000 styles of running shoes to choose from, they might then have 300 styles of Saucony trainers instead.
The search has been narrowed down and because the results are brand specific, the customer is more likely to know which product they want.
They are also more likely to know about the specific ranges that the brand offers.
As a result conversion rate will increase because the customer is being guided to a smaller range of products they are more likely to have an interest in.
Taking brand a step further
Now that the concept of specific navigation has been highlighted, how can you increase your conversion rate further?
Never underestimate the power of brand.
Even something as simple as incorporating the brand colours into a page of your website can make a massive difference to your sales.
Think about all the times you’ve walked through Debenhams and seen the different concessions of the clothing store makes to brands.
Each section is often bespoke to a particular brand, whether Gucci, Calvin Klein, Jane Norman or something else, with a detailed layout and matching colours. Even the outfits of the checkout and dressing room staff are coordinated to each brand.
Not convinced?
Then think about walking passed a newsagent with the thought of buying a bar of chocolate.
Now think about walking passed Thornton’s, a chocolate-themed shop, assaulting passers-by with the scent of chocolate, which is pumped into the air from the store.
We all know which of the two is most likely to make you step through the door and perhaps make a purchase.
Applying this aspect of high street retail to your website will have the same effect through having a strong association with the brand.
A fine example of applying this to the web is the Fit Flops page of Fitness Footwear, which abandons the typical layout of their online store in favour of a fully dedicated page tailored to the Fit Flops brand, using lifestyle shots, logos, video, colours and layout features from the manufacturer as well as a full explanation of how Fit Flops sandals work.
However, there’s no need to abandon your own brand altogether when creating bespoke product pages.
Notice that the Fitness Footwear logo remains in the top left hand corner of the page, reassuring the customer that they’re still on the same website and maintaining the necessary sense of security required when for online shopping.
Conversion is key
While viral marketing, Twitter, social bookmarking, SEO and RL advertising can be used to drive vast amounts of traffic to your website, being able to convert that traffic into sales is the only way to keep your business growing.
Never underestimate brand as a simple means of generating sales.
While many online fashion stores receive thousands of visitors every day, too often they struggle to turn a casual browse or even specific search into a sale, because they haven’t harnessed the power of brand marketing.
So when building your web pages and browsing tools, always bear brand in mind and your sales will likely soar.
