Re-Branding Your eCommerce Business

If your company has been around for awhile, chances are you have an established brand. Some companies choose to grow and change their brand gradually, while others prefer to remain true to their original image. Once in awhile, these older brands need a bit of an overhaul to help them stay relevant in the modern world. If you are considering re-branding your company, here are some tips to help you evaluate what to update and how to make a seamless transition.

Evaluate Your Brand:

While rebranding, you want to stay true to your core values and what makes you unique. Go back to your list of values and qualities that you created when branding your company, and choose which ones are still relevant. Then, decide on some new words and values that are important to you moving forward. Doing this will help you find a balance between staying true to your brand and reflecting your modern image.

When looking that things that you want to change or update, consider everything, from your logo to your color scheme to your name. Research your competitors and see what they are doing- have any of them had any brand overhauls lately? How did it effect them in both positive and negative ways? Some big brands have had pretty dramatic changes over the years to keep up with current trends, or to simply update their company to better reflect how they have grown. Think about how large brands such as Apple changed their logo and their technology got more advanced, or how Instagram updated their look when they were acquired by Facebook. If you need more inspiration, check out this list of brands that re-did their logos in the past few years.

Make A Plan:

Once you’ve done your research, decided what steps you need to take. Decide on a plan of action, and rank your priorities from most to least important. If you plan to make dramatic changes, think of a way to tell your audience ahead of time so they will be prepared. Tease them with big news on an upcoming date so that they get excited to see what you have in store, and help make the transition seamless for them by briefly explaining the reasoning behind your change. Keeping them in the loop helps them understand that you are changing and growing to help serve them better, and clear communication increases customer loyalty. You can also tweak your brand in smaller ways, such as using a more casual or formal tone, or posting different types of content. Keep in mind your current audience and desired audience, and post content that everyone will enjoy. If you need to run different campaigns to make that happen, that is perfectly fine! Just make sure that they have some commonalities so that your audience knows that it belongs to you.

Test It Out:

Once you have everything in place, test out your new changes. Keep track of what is helping you and what is hurting you. Give customers time to adjust to the way you’ve upgraded, but if they are all unhappy with certain aspects keep that under consideration. If you are feeling uncertain how your customers are feeling, you can always ask via a short survey or poll. Consider offering an incentive for customers for answering these surveys, such as free shipping or 10% off.

Rebranding isn’t necessary for everyone, but it can be a fun way to make your look more modern and keep ahead of your competitors. Stay true to your brand, be considerate of your customers, and do your research for rebranding success.