One of the first steps you should take before starting an online store is choosing the right ecommerce domain name. The world of eCommerce is fiercely competitive, and your domain name can make or break the long-term success of your online store. Your goal is to create a domain name that will help your customers discover your online store, remember it, think about it, talk about it, and find easily it using search engines. Below, we’ve provided some useful advice to give you a clearer understanding of how to choose the perfect domain name for your online store.
Identify your business
Your store domain name should give consumers some idea of the type of business you are running and what your website is about. When people see your online store domain name for the first time, they should be able to instantly and accurately guess the type of content they might find there. For eCommerce sites, when users see the name, they should understand what they can buy. We can give you examples of good domain names of the sites we worked on. For example watchsport.ru. How do you think what you can buy there? Yes, it is professional online store that sells watches for sports activities and tourism. Another good example is gardeneco.co.uk which provides eco-friendly products for gardening and recreation.
Determine the audience
At this step you should consider three factors: your audience’s gender, age, and social group. If your store is generally for women, do not forget that ladies often like sweet, pleasant names. For example we made an online embroidery craft store blancvert.ch where target customers are women. So this domain name includes french words which women like very much. Men are likely to prefer strict and exact names associated with reliability and high quality. If teenagers or students are your target audience, it is best to create a modern and catchy store domain name. Here you can use slang (but don’t confuse slang with obscenities). If your store has a specific focus, such as a hobby, lifestyle, or social group, you should take into account key words that are related to the topic.
Start brainstorming
Sometimes it takes a lot of time to create a perfect domain name for your online store. It is a good idea to use thesaurus to identify related words and synonyms of your ideas. You can use www.thesaurus.com to get started. Once you have a list of possible names, ask your family and friends for their opinions or consider asking your colleagues to brainstorm with you to get more ideas.
Keep the store domain name simple
Your domain name should be simple, catchy, and easy to remember. Try to create a memorable name that is easy to understand and to pronounce. It’s best for it to be spelled the way it sounds and for it to make sense as well because your clients should understand it without problems when they hear it. Unusual words, weird spellings, and dashes may confuse your customers. Ensure that your ecommerce website name is short to avoid misprints and make it easier to type.
Be creative
Be as creative as possible when creating your domain name. Your brand name should be catchy and creative while keeping the simplicity factor in mind.
Pick the right extension
The most widely accepted extension for a domain name is the commercial extension .com. It is better to try choosing this one. But if you run a business that is based in a country outside of the United States, then it can be smart to use a local TLD (.uk for the United Kingdom, .au for Australia, .ca for Canada, .de for Germany, .cn for China, etc.).
Don’t forget to check free domain names
You can spend many hours thinking over your domain name, but you may find the perfect name only to discover that it is not free. To find free domain names, you can check useful tools such as Domainr (www.domainr.com), WHOis (www.whois.com), and NameBoy (www.nameboy.com). These services will also offer you domain names that are available or for sale by the owner.