Online store branding: look like a brand, not a listing

Online store branding is what makes a shopper trust your shop enough to buy, and remember it enough to come back. For most stores it comes down to five decisions: a name with a simple wordmark, a small colour system, one background that every product sits on, a pair of typefaces, and ads that follow the same rules. Shops that sell products also available elsewhere, such as dropshipping and print on demand stores, need this most, because the brand is the only part a competitor cannot copy from the same supplier.

Why online stores look like listings

A listing is a product with a price. A brand is a point of view about who the product is for. Stores look like listings when they use the supplier's photos on white, a free theme in its default colours, a logo made from a stock icon and ads that change style every week. None of those choices is wrong alone. Together they say "nobody made decisions here", and shoppers notice, even if they couldn't explain it.

Step 1: choose a store name and wordmark

A new store rarely needs a symbol. A wordmark, the shop name set well in one typeface, is clearer, easier to read at favicon size and harder to get wrong. Choose a typeface with some character, set the name in it, adjust the spacing between letters by eye, and stop there. Wordmark design covers spacing and weight; logo design basics explains when a symbol is worth adding later.

Step 2: pick brand colours you can keep

Large palettes fall apart within a month. Three roles are enough for a store: a ground that most backgrounds use, an accent for buttons, prices and sale badges, and a neutral for body text. Pick the accent with contrast in mind, because it will sit behind button labels. How to choose brand colors goes through the reasoning.

Step 3: use one background for every product

This is the decision that changes a store fastest. Put every product, whether photographed or cut out, on the same ground: a coloured paper, a soft gradient, a textured surface. The grid of products immediately looks curated, and your images stop matching the competitor selling the same item. Cut out each product as a transparent PNG once, then place it on your ground. Product photo backgrounds shows options for different kinds of product.

Step 4: choose two typefaces

One typeface for headlines and the wordmark, one for everything else. A characterful serif with a plain sans works for most shops; two sans serifs of very different weights also works. Use the same pair on the site, in ads and on packaging inserts. Font pairing lists combinations that hold up.

Step 5: make ads that match the store

A shopper who taps an ad and lands on a page in different colours wonders whether they are in the right place. Ads should use the store's ground, type and accent so the click feels continuous. Test different products and headlines, not different visual identities. Instagram ad design and Facebook ad design cover the formats.

1. 1

   Write the rules down

   One page: wordmark, colours with hex codes, fonts, the product background. A brand style guide can be that short.

2. 2

   Redo the top ten products first

   Your best sellers are seen most. Put them on the new background before anything else.

3. 3

   Update the theme colours

   Buttons, links and sale badges in the accent; text in the neutral.

4. 4

   Rebuild your running ads

   Same products, new consistent look. Retire anything that breaks the rules.

Gradiently's brand kit can hold these rules for you: logos, palettes, a heading and body font, your voice and audience. It can read your store's website to fill in the name, colour and icon to start. Designs sit on a Mark, a gradient background that only you can export with once you claim it, so your product posts and ads cannot match anyone else's.