How do you brand your Shopware store correctly?

Competition in the e-commerce business is intense. For many years now, sales volumes in e-commerce have been rising steadily. Especially since the Corona pandemic, this phenomenon has increased even more. Almost everything gets bought and sold on the Internet. From fashion, to housewares and beauty, to the most curious things. 🦨🧦 And with all these things, there are countless providers.

This makes the right CI and external presentation of your Shopware store even more important. This way, you can stand out from all the other e-commerce merchants.  Because there's one thing you should definitely take to heart: Basically, it doesn't matter what you sell or how good your product is. You need to attract any attention to your business. You need to convince potential customers that your store is worth their money. Branding is the most important thing to become successful with your Shopware store. Oh, and spoiler alert: Everlasting price dumping is definitely not the way to go.

In short, the right branding is the most important thing to make your Shopware Store successful. And that's exactly what we're going to take care of in this article. Learn everything about branding strategies and branding itself.

Foundation #1: What is Branding?

Before we delve deeper into the topic, let's clarify what Branding actually means.

Branding is generally referred to simply building a brand in a targeted way. Branding works best when your brand has a targeted unique selling proposition and is emotionally charged. A great example of this is the supplier TrueFruits. The brand gained a lot of awareness through constant provocative and polarizing statements. Not only on the net or in advertising! No, also on the products. They take the "True" of TrueFruits just seriously in all directions. In addition, there is always an exact indication on the smoothie bottles. This indicates which products are inside and in what quantity. For easy reproduction at home. With this, TrueFurits definitely represents a unique selling proposition AND is emotionally charged. 

An example for the jokey way of True Fruits on their Instagram account.

In short, your brand is what customers identify with your company. Branding is the unique and unmistakable identity of your brand. 

But what exactly is the advantage of branding? 🤔 Simply this: your brand is recognized and loved. This allows you to achieve higher margins, because your customers are willing to pay more. Just to hold your product in their hands. 🤓

Oh, and one thing in advance. If you want to brand successfully, you should stay away from big marketplaces like Ebay or Amazon. These platforms only offer you limited space for your branding. So it's best to use your own Shopware store, because it offers you enough branding possibilities.

Why is branding important for your Shopware store?

Branding is simply about making it easy for your potential customers to understand what your company stands for and what you offer. 

With a strong brand image, it is easier for you to charge higher prices. 

If your branding is not yet in place or appropriate, it is important to address this as soon as possible.  We'll start from zero now, so you have a clear plan on how to properly approach your Shopware store branding. 

Questions you should answer first

For long-lasting success and customers that fit you, it is important that the brand fits you and your personality perfectly. That's why you should clarify the following questions for yourself before developing your brand: 

1. What is your personal identity and how do you want to communicate it to your target audience? 
2. Your Buyer Persona
3. How would you describe your brand in three words
4. What's the difference between your competition and you? 
5. What are your values and what is your brand message (mission)?

How is good branding created?

A good branding needs effort and time...first you need a CI. Means: your brand colors! Which colors do you want people to associate directly with you? 

An example for this is Milka. Many people associate the purple color directly to the chocolate, with the purple cow. But your CI also includes specific brand colors. 

In addition, it can be useful to create a brand identity for your brand. This includes points such as the brand purpose, brand values, name, positioning and claim. What all these points mean in concrete terms, you will learn in the following. 

Brand Purpose

The Brand Purpose is what every brand communicates as its own value. Like Nike, for example, with its claim "Just Do It". So here the additional value besides sportswear, which is often important to customers is, just to do it. 

The slogan "Just do it" is presented everywhere. Here on the Instagram account from Nike.

Brand Values

Brand values are the values that a brand represents. These can be widely diversified. From ethnic reasons to simple rational reasons, everything can be considered here. If you are aware of your brand values, future advertising campaigns can be designed better.

Brand Name

Of course, the brand name should not be forgotten. It should correspond to your store name and be as easy to understand as possible. It is also good if the name is a combination of words with the products that you sell. This will help your customers to remember the name better. 

Brand Positionierung

The more unique, the better. You are competing with other store owners, regardless of the industry. Try to position your brand as uniquely as possible to gain the sympathy of potential customers.

So define your unique selling proposition and make it transparently visible everywhere. On your home page, on the "About Us" page, and on your packaging. Make sure that this point is directly connected to you. 

If you are still struggling to define your unique selling proposition, perhaps the following questions can help you with positioning it:

1. What do we stand for?
2. What makes my Shopware Store unique? 
3. Why choose us, what do we do better?

Claim

A claim is definitely not required, but it can be very helpful. It tells your customers in a few words what values you represent.

Logo and font

Of course, this point cannot be missing as well. A logo is of course important as well and the font belongs to it. 

There are pure font logos and pure image logos. A brand that is still under construction should necessarily have the name in the logo as well. In any case, the logo should fit the brand. If you want to position your brand in a modern way, create a clean logo. Do you want to be more high-class? - Then your logo should be as elegant as possible, etc. 

The right color is also an important point. The color of your logo should definitely be chosen strategically as well. Each color has a psychological effect, which must be taken into account. Here you can find a table with the different psychological effects. Let me tell you, though, that you should not use more than two or at most three shades. 

Your brand needs frequency

Let's face it. As nice as your branding strategy is now, after you've carefully gone through all points...it won't get you anything without visitors on your site! 

You need to do marketing to make your brand known. Social media channels are particularly suitable, of course. It takes time, but eventually your brand gets around and goes through the roof! But, obviously, paid ads are also a great way to quickly gain awareness and attract customers. The important thing is, no matter which channel you use to advertise, your CI should be presented in the same way everywhere.. 

That means: Same font, color, logo, name. 

Conclusion: Can I easily do the branding myself?

If you have thought about all the points mentioned above and have designed your branding on the basis of your answers, you will certainly be able to manage your branding on your own. In the case that you simply don't have the necessary creativity, there are also enough experts. They will discuss all the points with you and implement what is necessary for you. 

Just try to create a consistent appearance everywhere and I'm sure your Shopware Store will go through the roof! In any case, we wish you a lot of success! 🍀

If you have any questions about the implementation in Shopware or need help, feel free to contact us at any time. 🤓

By the way, if you want to sell products in your Shopware Store, a user-friendly building is important. Read more about it here.