The failure to understand the difference between brand building and eCommerce building is a common marketing gap. While both have similar goals as they are done with the purpose of increasing sales and revenue, the approaches applied for each vary and they both have the ability to make other more or less effective. Read on to take a look at brand building and ecommerce store building and learn what makes each of them different.
Brand Building is at the Upper End of the Funnel
Building a brand is a lot deeper as compared to building an eCommerce store to increase sales and revenue. Brandbuilding or branding has everything to do with identity, e.g. the type of business, your business name, why should consumers know about it, how does your brand make them feel, etc. The answer to such questions is generally related to the products you offer; however, it’s not limited to them.
The purpose of brand building is to make your business feel like a person and not just a business product or automated vending machine. Since a person has a personality, the brand of your business must also show its personality. In a nutshell, the purpose of brand building is to build awareness and inform the potential customers in the target market.
E–Commerce Store Building is at the Lower End of the Funnel
eCommerce store building also has similar goals, e.g. building awareness, consideration, etc. After all, if a potential customer doesn’t know that you sell online, you won’t be able to market to them. Building an eCommerce store is as essential step in this regard. Once the online selling store has been built, you should focus on consideration and conversion. Your branding will help attract visitors to your eCommerce store which in turn will lead to increased sales and revenue.
Difference Between Branding and e-Commerce Store Building
Now that you know about the aspects of building a brand and building an eCommerce store, let’s look at the key differences between them. These include the following:
Target Audience
The target audience is distinct between brand building and eCommerce store building. eCommerce store building is usually more targeted as it focuses on a certain group of people. In contrast, brand building is typically geared towards a broader and larger audience. With eCommerce store building, the target audience size tends to be relatively smaller as compared to brand building techniques.
Objectives
Just like target audience, brand building and eCommerce store building also tend to differ in terms of objectives. By building an eCommerce store, you make more defined objectives for your businesses, those that particularly focus on online selling. On the other hand, the objective of branding is to promote brand awareness or to capture the audience’s attention in the early stage of the buying journey for new products.
Results
With eCommerce store building being targeted and brand building capturing a larger audience, the results of both approaches can also be different. It’s fairly easy to assess and report on results from eCommerce store building because there are generally more ways to measure online campaigns thanks to integrated reporting dashboards and tools. The results of branding on the other hand, can be difficult to measure. For these, businesses normally look for parallels between web traffic and campaign launches, sales, or conversions. However, these metrics are not as accurate as those collected from eCommerce store monitoring.
Cost
The nature of branding and eCommerce store building can make a difference in their cost. eCommerce store building can be as cheap or costly as you choose. For instance, if you are advertising for your online store, all you need to do is simply take advantage of blog writing and social media channels. This won’t cost much if you manage it in-house. On the other hand, brand building is deeper and hence, relatively more expensive. It is especially very expensive if it you don’t get a good ROI.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, there are several key differences between building a brand and building an eCommerce store but their ultimate goals are basically same, e.g. offering a feeling and experience that your consumers seek. Both have their advantages and both are crucial for a business’s success. So, it’s a good idea to combine the two approaches so that you can increase your brand’s visibility and attract more attention to your online presence at the same time. Till next time!–The Black Sheep