How to choose the name of the online store

The saying “how to call a ship - so it will float” sometimes you want to be neglected, it seems, well, it isn’t relevant so often. For the name of the online store is 100% relevant.

Marketing agencies take a lot of money to create the “right” name. And for good reason! Just look at the criteria that the name must satisfy: getting into Central Asia, compliance with the product, difficulty of remembering, eloquence \ associativity, uniqueness, stop list.

It is not worth waving a hand and assume that for IM (hereinafter Internet Store) all this is not necessary. Bad is the soldier who does not want to become a general. If you want to open them, that is enough for bread and butter, better not even start. But if the plans are ambitious, then the creation of the name should be approached as seriously as the choice of engine. This is the future brand!
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Find out what lies behind the listed criteria, and why they pay money for it. At the end of the post I will give a few tips on how to better invent names.

I would like to clarify in advance that the words “name” and “name” mean the domain name and the name of the store.

Hit in Central Asia

Gender, age, social affiliation of Central Asia. And the price factor.

Price factor

The name must match the price level of the store. That is, the markup, or price segment of the goods, if it is luxury goods.

Almost all online stores are focused on the middle class. And a small part of people with high incomes. You could even say that no store is focused on people with low income. BUT! and it is big, all the same, all customers are divided into 3 categories based on the price policy of the store: "low price" (want cheaper), average price (do not chase the low price), high price (don't care about the price, main service and quality)

If we are talking about a brand ... well, let's not get so far. If we are talking about positioning your store in a certain price category, then the name should convey to the customer a sense of price. You should not argue, here is a simple example:

The names for the watch stores “Noblesse” and “Second”. Needless to say, where are luxury watches for sale, at high prices, and where are those that are cheaper? “Noblesse” - stately, pathetic, expensive. “Second” is nothing special, the simple name speaks for itself.

What are the characteristics should have the names for different price categories?

The name for a discount store (goods with a low mark-up) can / should be simple, playful, comic, everyday.

The name for the store with a high mark-up or selling expensive goods, the name should be pathetic, rich, pompous, shocking (but not vip, elit, premium)

For medium-priced stores suitable neutral names. It is, by the way, used for stores that are oriented toward everyone, or rather do not distinguish customers by income levels.

All the same, I want to say a little about branding. The future of online commerce will come to this.

IM have some psychological advantage over offline stores. There is such a category of customers who are afraid of expensive shops, afraid of communicating with consultants (this cannot be avoided in expensive, good shops). There are mainly more among clients with average and above average earnings. For them, IM is the best option, because minimizes lively contact and eliminates uncomfortable feeling. Good specialists know this, and they may object to me that for IM they can safely choose some kind of pompous name, at the same time grab vanity customers with small income.

But the name is a brand! The brand should always be positioned, if your store has high prices or expensive goods, then the design and positioning should be appropriate, attract your target audience. Conversely, a store that emphasizes low prices should emphasize this in its advertising. When the turnover of such companies is large, then the selection of the target audience from the crowd through the perception of the brand plays an important role. It is the perception of the brand that begins to play a role here without a corresponding name anywhere.

Wait an example. Electronics store with low prices Rozetka. Comic name, claiming simplicity, and condusive to gain a foothold in the minds of the audience as "low prices". Marketers of the company reinforce the association with the name of the relevant advertising (left banner), Example 2 and the logo.

Gender factor

It is very clear here. Women - gentle, beautiful name, you can even sexy and flirty. Men - strict, courageous, reliable (associated with reliability)

Age factor

Among the clients of IM, personally, I would single out three age audiences. Adolescents (under 21), youth (from 21 to 30) and average age (from 30 to 45).

It is also worth considering that the Internet is an environment for young and active people. The average age of the “Internet user” is 27-30 years. But still a lot of users are older than this age and they use online stores.

The average age, it would seem, is the average! You can not emphasize this fact in the title. However, it is necessary to refrain from loud and defiant names. “Serednyachki” - people over 30 years old, in most cases prefer harmony and tranquility. Accordingly, the names should be the same.

Youth is the largest and most active audience. In the audience go their lexical innovations and rules, their slang, which can play a role. Of course, it is important not to overdo the use of slang. Audience size can play a disservice: users between the ages of 22 and 30 have too many different preferences, so more research is needed from the audience and overlapping factors (more on this below)

Teenagers are also a favorable environment with their own tastes. But much easier than young people. Take calling names from the lexical use of members of the audience. Do not lose in 90% of cases.

Social factor

If expanded: belonging to any social groups on a variety of grounds: religion, sub-culture, lifestyle, hobbies, and so on.

I will not dig deep take sub-cultures and directions

Rock paraphernalia , Equipment for extreme sports , emo store . Caught my eye on shops for ready, and for Arab women in Moscow.

Differences and features of social groups should put their footprints on the names of stores.

Direct hit with a name in Central Asia makes the store closer to the audience. “Own” among others, especially for social groups.

Product Matching

The most important criterion! if not the most important.

Divided into two factors:

Compliance with the nature of the goods

The nature of the name must match the nature of the goods. Perfumery - tenderness, underwear - sexuality, electronics - electronics :), flowers - beauty, sex shops ... well, in general, you understand. Any word that you will use in the name should convey characteristic emotions for the product.

Manly names with goods from lingerie stores would look ridiculous.

Eloquence of the name

Name associativity with key descriptive characteristics of the product.

It can be divided into two different approaches:

1. Using synonyms for the name of the product category. Why synonyms, and not direct names, read the “stop list”. This approach allows you to tell the audience about the proposed product on the basis of the name and without resorting to slogans. As in contextual advertising - use keywords in headlines and ad text. Usually used in conjunction with another word or prefix. For example, “bt-parfum”. In addition, using the keyword in Title helps in seo optimization.

2. Use in the Name of associative words. As mentioned above, the words should characterize the emotions caused by the product, and the approach is based on a combination of the nature of the words and their associativity with the product.
I do not want to break my head for an example, I will take mine. I came up with a new name for my store. It should be combined with perfumes and cosmetics - tenderness and beauty. They came up with captivate, fragrance, some female names, foreign translations of Russian words: aroma, temptation, tenderness, smell, and so on.

Name complexity

Or in the people: "how easy to remember the name."

Simplicity The name directly affects how often customers return to you. I would add more spelling and lexical literacy of the Name. Sometimes there are mutants :)

Name complexity also affects seo optimization. The problem is that it will be difficult to guess the wrong or bad word even through a search engine - it will not tell. We'll have to sort through all the possible words in the texts on the site or in tags. Hemorrhoid decent.

But then again, the possibility / attempt to find a clumsy name with a search does not negate the fact that the Store name will be remembered at all, but if they do, it’s not a fact that they make a mistake by looking for it.

beautyk is a terrible name, isn't it? They asked me: “as the name?”. I counted ten possible spellings. And it should be right like this: “Beautique”. Although the correct option from the first time, few would guess.

Uniqueness

Look for a name that is not on the market: associations, similarity - everything can make a difference. The name should be unique and not similar to any other, in any eye.

Uniqueness is also originality of the name, creativity. How subtle, but still clear The name reflects the essence of your proposal. The more unique, the more difficult it is to fake or clone unscrupulous competitors.

Multivariance

Multivariate spelling of the name contributes to the appearance of clones. At this point, as they say, it is a sin not to take advantage of unfair competitors.

Multivariance arises due to such factors:

features of the transliteration of Russian words into English. “Casket” - larec, larets. The first domain is mine, the second is a foreign one (in the com.ua domain zone), since on the first one I still haven’t put the store, I forgot to register the second one, this is the result. This is an example that immediately surfaced. There are many such examples.
grammar of foreign languages. An example in my post 10 terrible mistakes , point one.
hyphens. In the example above you will find confirmation.
Use the ending “s” of the plural in the English language or the plural word in the native language. Gift, gifts - gift, gifts.

Language features

When creating a domain name, it should be remembered that not many citizens of the former Soviet Union speak English or some other foreign languages. But for some reason they often forget about this and use words that are difficult for our perception in the name.

Boutique.ru, for example. I do not know what the store owners thought. But I am sure that they are spending a good couple of hundred bucks on the maintenance of the “staff” of similar domains. Or "staff" is used by competitors.

The language question is problematic, not so much in the spelling, sometimes the search engines suggest the correct version, as in memorizing the domain name and the store.

By the way, memorizing a domain can aggravate such a fact. The manager answers the calls: “Online boutique (Boutique), hello.” And what do you think, then customers who remember the name will enter the search? :)

Another language feature relating to the CIS countries is the use of transliteration words. Here it is important to remember not only how to spell a word in transliteration, but how most of your potential customers write this word. Difficulties may arise with the letters "sh", "u", "g", "i". The latter, though known, but remember that many clients are not familiar with transliteration. So, even more simple and well-known analogues of our letters can cause difficulties for people.

Stop list

I advise you to refrain from using certain prefixes or words in the Name.

1. The prefixes top, vip, elit, best, and so on, which indicate a certain superlative degree. Trite, stupid, intent, annoying. My store is no exception, I know, but did not know 3 years ago)

2. Prefix shop. Not so annoying, but already zamylennaya. In addition, the shop prefix increases the variant spelling of the Name. Giftshop, gift-shop, shopgift (you do not laugh - there are many idiots), giftsshop - this can easily be.

3. direct mention of the name of the product category. Gift, parfum, book, CD, DVD, etc. (including transliteration). There are of course exceptions, for example a bambook, but only a confirming rule.

Intersection factors

or the prevalence of some factors over others.
Some factors intersect in their influence on the name of the company \ domain name. I will explain with examples.

Commodity factor intersects with the price . Especially true when the goods themselves are expensive.

Sometimes Price factor prevails over Commodity . For example, if you need to emphasize low margins, the example is the same - Rozetka.

The commodity factor in some cases prevails over the age . Perfumery, selective (elite), regardless of Central Asia, the product itself is “elite”, and can not be associated with youth, slang, comic, etc., names.

You can continue for a long time, the main thing to remember this rule and use when creating a name.

Tips

There are several ways and tricks to choose the name of the store and avoid problems in the future.

1. Sometimes the Name can be found among the names of the goods. No wonder someone already puzzled over the name of the product and used characteristic words for it. You can use them, but only if you use the general-lexical words used in the name of the product.

2. Register the Name in several domain zones. Even if the name is unique, it can be registered in several domain zones, which will not slow down your competitors.
In Uaneta, there is a domain zone UA provided for tore marks. If the name of the store is unique and the future is ambitious, sooner or later it will be necessary to register the TM. Otherwise, it can make competitors and select your name. If TM is registered, registration of your Name will be prohibited in other zones.

3. Frequent typos in the spelling of domains. In the example of aromart.kiev.ua and aromat.kiev.ua. Two different stores. But first registered their domain, because The second was once very popular, and many, including myself, sometimes make the mistake - “r” before “t”.

4. Do not forget to register variant spellings of your domain.

5. The use of the names of the dead, but famous brands. For example, in Ukraine, the brand L`Escale (Lescal) died 2 years ago. Sorry, busy.
Remember! Clones of domain names can be used for different purposes. Feel lucky if you just take orders away, no luck if the domain will be used to discredit your brand

If you have any additions to my article, I will be glad to hear.