The domain name you choose to promote your e-commerce store is, in essence, the brand name of your company but in URL form. It’s crucial, therefore, that you get it right.
But choosing a great URL for your e-commerce store is a challenge.
How do you know if you’ve got the name right?
And how do you know if it’s something that your customers will love and immediately associate with you?
In truth, choosing a domain name for an e-commerce store is always a bit of a risk. But if you adhere to the following advice, there’s a good chance that you’ll settle on something that works.
Tip #1: Avoid Long And Confusing URLs
Your company might be called Jack’s Building Supplies And Aggregates. But if you put that into a URL, you’ll end up with something like:
http://www.jacksbuildingsuppliesandaggregates.com
Can you see the problem with this URL? It’s too long, it contains too many words, and the customer can’t quickly type it into their search bar. In short, it’s a disaster.
If Jack wants people to come and buy building supplies from him, he’d be better off choosing an URL like:
Notice here that it’s much simpler for customers to type, there isn’t a long string of words, and you immediately know everything you need to know about the site. The .company suffix is important because it gives Jack much more freedom over what he can type as his URL. (Other popular suffixes might already be taken).
Tip #2: Use Alternative Domain Names For Campaigns
If you’re running a special campaign or trying to target a particular group of customers, then it’s sometimes wise to reel them in with a variety of domain names, not just one.
Going back to the above example, Jack might want to lure in people who want to buy pipes and bricks, and so he could use the domain names, “jackspipes.company,” and “jacksbricks.company” to grab people’s attention.
Tip #3: Don’t Crete Confusing Abbreviations
Keeping a domain URL short is vital for making it legible and memorable. But making it too short by including abbreviations doesn’t help, and often makes things worse.
Let’s say that an e-commerce store goes by the name of Amazing Science Fiction Books And Movies. It might try to abbreviate its URL to something like
http://www.amazescifibksmovies.com.
Yes, it’s shorter than it would have been, but to most people, that URL is utterly incomprehensible. Nobody will ever remember it.
Tip #4: Make Your Domain Name Distinctive
Failing to make your domain name distinctive could mean that you fall foul of trademark laws. But there’s another problem: it doesn’t help build your brand.
Going back to the above example, the name Amazing Science Fiction Books and Movies might do an excellent job of describing what your e-commerce store sells, but it’s not distinctive in any way.
What you want for a domain name is something that is easily and instantly recognized by customers. A better business name for science fiction media would be something like WookieBooks, which you could quickly transform into a URL.