If you reconstruct in your mind what you did last week, I can assure you that you will remember buying something from an e-commerce store (I fully support the decision). E-commerce (any business that buys and sells products or services online) has become an important part of our lives.
According to eMarketer, global retail e-commerce sales surpassed $5 trillion for the first time, accounting for more than one-fifth of all retail sales. Total turnover will exceed $7 trillion by 2025, even despite slowing growth.
That’s good news for those in the e-commerce business! There are many opportunities and that generates great enthusiasm. But before you set up your store, you need to design a logo. This post will walk you through everything you need to know about designing a logo for your eCommerce store.
Why You Need an Ecommerce Store Logo
There are many reasons.
The first is that there is no face-to-face interaction, which translates into a certain mistrust, typical of the e-commerce business model. And that’s where a logo comes into play. Your logo works as the face of your online store. It can build an emotional connection with your customers and inspire trust. And trust is very important for brand loyalty and to have a successful e-commerce store.
Moreover, your logo will not only be seen on your website, but also on your products, email, business card, etc. Every time you use your logo, your online presence is solidified and therefore brand recognition. Brand recognition is the parameter that indicates the extent to which the consumer can identify a brand.
Two friends from Southern California traveled to Costa Rica and fell in love with the country’s laid-back lifestyle. The friends teamed up with a local artisan, who designed bracelets that captured and celebrated the simple aspects of life and that’s how Pura Vida was born. The brand’s logo conveys its personality and values perfectly both in the slogan (“live free”) and in the icon (a pineapple), in the typography and in the design in general. Customers can discover a lot about the brand just by looking at the logo and can also connect with Pura Vida’s values on an emotional level.
Think about other companies in your industry (Pura Vida, without a doubt, is not the only one in the costume jewelry market). It’s essential to differentiate yourself from the rest of the market and a logo is one of the best ways to achieve just that. Your logo denotes your brand’s personality and that’s what makes customers choose you.
Best practices when designing an e-commerce logo
For a logo to be effective, it must be well-designed and well-done. Stick to these design principles to come up with a logo that stands out.
Simplicity
Straight to the point, neat and clear, that’s what your logo should look like. A simple logo gives your target audience an immediate idea of who you are as a brand, and while it may seem counterintuitive, it will make it easier to remember. The eBay logo is based on this principle:
Scale
Your logo will be used on various platforms, in different sizes and formats. If your logo has too many design elements in your proposal, the details will be lost or completely unreadable when you reduce or increase its size.
File Formats
The file type of your logo is an important thing to consider, even if it’s often overlooked. Your logo may be perfect, but if it’s in the wrong file type, it won’t be readable. The most important file format for your logo is a vector file. Without getting into technicalities about vector graphics, these are important because they can be resized without compromising image quality.
This means that vector files can be enlarged or reduced without pixelation or warping. So when you scale down your logo to place it on a sticker or enlarge it to use in a banner, create it as a vector file.
Originality
Do your best to create a logo that’s completely unique. Good advice, but hard to follow, right? Start by looking for logos of the industry you belong to. Which patterns appear the most? For example, financial services and banks (Visa, PayPal, and American Express) often use blue as their primary color scheme. To differentiate themselves, Mastercard and Ally Bank chose red/orange and purple, respectively.
Don’t be afraid to deviate from your industry norm; otherwise, you risk going unnoticed.
Tips for Designing a Good Ecommerce Logo
Let’s discuss some recommendations to keep in mind when designing your eCommerce logo.
You must understand your target audience
Your logo should reflect your brand and appeal to your target audience. A target audience is the demographic that your e-commerce business is looking to serve. If your audience is plant lovers who don’t necessarily have a “green hand,” your logo should be designed to capture them. The Lazy Gardens logo is an ideal example:
Take the time to understand your audience’s interests, income level, location, age, gender, values, occupation, etc. This will help you design your logo.
Research the competition
E-commerce is a highly competitive space, which means you need to review what your competitors are doing. After all, you don’t want to create a logo that’s almost a copy of all the others.
Identify what works and what doesn’t for your competitors. How can you enhance the different design elements to create an eCommerce logo that stands out? Maybe the way is not to follow repeated color schemes or to use a different font from the competition.
Make it match your product
If it’s the design of an e-commerce logo, it should be unique. A great way to achieve this is by incorporating your business name into the design. It’s a subtle but effective way to strengthen your brand and increase brand recognition.
Anchor & Crew jewelry is known for its signature anchor bracelet, which inspired the brand to use an anchor icon to represent the “&” symbol in its logo.
Choose colors carefully
The colors you choose for your e-commerce logo depend on what you want to communicate to your target audience and how you want them to perceive you. Certain colors send subliminal messages: blue is relaxing, red is passionate, green is all about the earth, and so on.
The most common colors found in e-commerce depend on the market you belong to. Therefore, we reiterate, check what colors your competitors use and see how to make your logo stand out.
Choose the right fonts
While there are no set rules for choosing a font for your eCommerce logo, there are some guidelines to keep in mind. First, if you’re using an icon, opt for a simple font that’s easy to read and won’t be difficult to draw attention to. The sans serif font, crisp and without Artisaire, achieves a perfect balance with the abstract logo next to it. A logo with text, however, can capitalize on the advantages that more elaborate fonts bring.
Then, you need to identify what your niche is, your target audience, and the overall impression you’re trying to convey. Let’s take a look at Bebemoss, a company owned by women who crochet toys entirely by hand, using organic cotton yarns and filling them with recycled bottles. The font resembles Comic Sans MS, a sans serif typeface whose letters don’t connect to each other, which is used for cartoon text bullet points and children’s materials. Bebemoss made a very wise decision regarding this particular choice of font, as it relates to its target audience and conveys a relaxed and warm feeling.
Consider the disposition
Layout doesn’t have to be the first (or second) aspect to consider when designing your logo, but it’s important. Your logo doesn’t need to be perfectly symmetrical, but it should be aligned with its surroundings. It will happen that there will be times when your logo will be placed against vertical or horizontal edges, so you should take into account the layout for both possibilities.
Think in variants
Your logo can appear on everything from t-shirts and fanny packs to investor presentations and business cards. That means the way your logo appears on a smartphone won’t be the same as it does on a laptop. To design an eCommerce store logo well, you need to create a logo that is functional for all kinds of situations.
Also, consider what your favicon will look like. A favicon is a small icon found in browser tabs, bookmarks, and search bars. Skullcandy, a headphone company, uses a favicon skull icon so that visitors can clearly identify the brand.
Things to consider about design once you have your logo
Now that we’ve covered almost everything that has to do with designing an eCommerce store logo, let’s tackle other aspects to consider in design.
Consistent color palette
You need to have a coherent color palette… and then comes everything else. People are looking for brands in which to place their trust. You’ll have to meet their expectations; To do this, you’ll need to maintain brand consistency to ensure your customers are happy.
Consistency lets your customers know you’re trustworthy, and that builds trust, loyalty, and sales. The more consistent your brand image is, the more customers your business will attract. It’s that simple.
Using a consistent color palette in your logo is a top priority. Think of it this way: what if you used a yellow and orange logo on your website and then changed it to red and pink on your social media? Such inconsistencies could lead to confusion and mistrust.
Also, keeping your color palette consistent is aesthetically pleasing. Just look at Larq’s color scheme, in gray, black, and blue: it generates calm, is modern, and elegant.
Free fonts
When it comes to fonts, it’s best to use no more than three different types. Otherwise, your eCommerce store will look unprofessional and confusing. There are five font families: don’t use more than two, that’s at most.
If you’re using more than one font family, make sure they complement each other, according to the width of their characters. Combining a serif font with script could create harmony (as is the case with the Adored Vintage brand). However, a bold font along with a script would look bad.
Things to consider about brand images
From your website banner to social media, every image should be related to and support your brand. BLK & Bold Specialty Beverages excels at coordinating their images, both on their website and social media profiles, so that they are aligned with the overall image. Something very authentic about BLK & Bold is that it never uses stock photos. All of their product images are real photos that invite the viewer to feel welcome, similar to what it feels like when you walk into a coffee shop.
Now it’s your turn
E-commerce has a permanent and strong presence in our lives, and it’s here to stay, so you’re in good hands. As Paul Rand (renowned graphic designer who worked for IBM, UPS and ABC) said: “If in the communications business, ‘the image is king’, the essence of this image, the logo, is the jewel in that crown.”
That’s a lot of responsibility for a single graphic designer, right? Crafting an eCommerce store logo is a colossal project, but this article addresses all the important principles that will guide you through the process.