Looking for tips for naming your store? Here’s a guide to help you make the right choices and avoid common mistakes.

In this post, we discuss the importance of choosing a good store name that resonates with your customers. Selecting the perfect name for your online business is not an easy task and involves various factors. Making the wrong decisions when naming your store can have long-lasting consequences and hinder your chances of success. To prevent this, follow our do’s and don’ts list for naming your store.

The Significance of a Good Store Name

You’ve probably heard of McDonald’s (cue laughter). If not, it’s the largest international fast-food chain globally. What sets them apart? Is it their exceptional service or outstanding menu?

Not quite. Many other restaurants offer delicious food quickly. What truly distinguishes McDonald’s is its brand name. Watch “The Founder”(https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4276820/plotsummary)  to learn the story behind McDonald’s.

Surprisingly, the real creator of the chain we know today is Ray Kroc, a former traveling salesman who bought out the original McDonald’s company founded by the McDonald brothers. The brothers invented a revolutionary system for fast cooking and serving, which caught Kroc’s attention. However, Kroc didn’t just steal the idea; he wanted the name.

To him, “McDonald’s” sounded all-American and appealing to the public. Through persistence, Kroc managed to strike a deal with the brothers and became the owner of the McDonald’s brand. The rest is history. In 2020, the global brand value of McDonald’s was estimated at nearly $130 billion (source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/326059/mcdonalds-brand-value/).

This story highlights the importance of a strong brand name. For online merchants, choosing an excellent store name is even more critical. Here are a few reasons why. 

The Key Benefits of Having a Good Store Name

1. First impression: Your store name is the initial point of connection between your business and consumers. If your name sticks in their minds and evokes positive associations, they are more likely to return and make repeat purchases.
2. Search engine visibility: A store name forms the basis of your domain name. If it’s relevant to your niche and includes appropriate keywords, search engines like Bing will rank your online store higher in search results. This means more potential customers will find your site, improving your bottom line.
3. Differentiation: With global e-retail revenues projected to reach $5.4 trillion in 2022 (source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/), competition among e-commerce businesses is fierce. Platforms like Shopify make it easy for anyone to set up a store, leading to a vast number of online sellers. A unique store name is one of the most effective ways to capture your target audience’s attention.

Many entrepreneurs are willing to pay substantial sums to marketing agencies for the perfect brand name. However, if you’re on a tight budget, you can create your business name yourself.

To help you navigate this process and avoid common pitfalls, we’ve compiled a list of do’s and don’ts.

Tips for Choosing a Store Name: Avoid These Pitfalls

Mistake #1: Opting for a Lengthy and Hard-to-Pronounce Business Name

When selecting a store name that resonates with your customers, it’s crucial to avoid lengthiness. Long words tend to go in one ear and out the other for consumers, making it challenging for your store name to stick in their minds.

An ideal brand name should be concise, consisting of just one or two syllables. Take FedEx as an example. It’s much easier to remember than ‘Federal Express Corporation’ and is also simpler to pronounce. Check out this list of popular global brand names for more inspiration: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/apple-most-valuable-brand-iphone-7-google-cocacola-a7345501.html. 

To come up with a short and easily pronounceable store name, consider these approaches:

• Combine a couple of short, similar-sounding words that describe your company’s offerings. PayPal, for instance, signifies ‘paying your pal,’ highlighting its peer-to-peer money transfer service.
• Unleash your creativity by inventing a new word or modifying an existing one. Xerox, derived from ‘xerography,’ which means “dry” and “writing” in Greek, is a prime example.
• Utilize abbreviations or acronyms. FedEx and BMW are great illustrations.

Of course, these are just a few of the many paths you can explore when brainstorming a store name that is both succinct and easily pronounced.

Three additional tips to keep in mind:

• Avoid using silent characters, such as the ‘e’ in ‘line.’
• Steer clear of special symbols like ampersands (&) in your store name.
• Discard articles like ‘the’ or ‘a(n)’.

Mistake #2: Copycatting Other Brands

It’s important to avoid the common mistake of trying to imitate successful brand names. Some companies may be tempted to slightly modify a well-known brand name, like spelling “Amazoon” instead of Amazon, in hopes of capitalizing on their competitor’s success.

While this tactic may initially attract more traffic, it can lead to significant trouble for an online store, including legal consequences. Having a store name that even remotely resembles another brand, especially a well-known one, can attract aggressive lawyers ready to pounce.

Tweaking another company’s name is just one of the tricks that should never be considered. It’s also crucial to avoid using words that are already prevalent in your niche competitors’ brand or domain names. For instance, if they use the word “furniture,” be sure to choose something completely different while still describing your business. Take the time to research and review your competitors’ stores.

Mistake #3: Neglecting Your Target Audience

Another mistake to avoid is ignoring the wants, needs, and financial capabilities of your target audience. When creating a store name, consider the following criteria:

• Age segment (e.g., people in their 30s, 40s, teens)
• Price range of the products you’ll sell (cheap, expensive, middle-range)
• Gender segment 

Your store name and theme should reflect these characteristics. For example, if you’re targeting young shoppers, incorporating words and phrases from their typical vocabulary or using vibrant language can be effective. An example of this is Boohoo (https://us.boohoo.com/), an online store catering to “sociable twenty-somethings” with trendy clothing.

When selling high-end products, opt for a sophisticated and aristocratic store name. Using personal names is common in this case, as seen with Gucci (https://www.gucci.com/).

Avoid using prices and numbers in store names as it is generally discouraged.

Lastly, consider whether you primarily intend to target male or female consumers. Female-oriented store names often evoke beauty, gentleness, and harmony, like Senreve (https://www.senreve.com/), an e-commerce site selling luxurious handbags. The name combines the French words for “sense” and “dream.”

For men, choose store names that sound masculine, such as Moosejaw (https://www.moosejaw.com), a store offering trekking essentials.

How to Choose a Store Name: Do’s

Utilize Available Resources

When deciding on a store name, don’t overlook the people around you, including friends, relatives, colleagues, and customers. Ask for their suggestions and ideas as they may provide valuable insights. Additionally, there are numerous business name generators available online, like the Oberlo Business Name Generator (https://www.oberlo.com/tools/business-name-generator) and Namesmith (https://namesmith.io/). These tools can help spark ideas and creativity.

Seek Feedback and Test

If you have already come up with a business name, ask for opinions from your friends and acquaintances. They might notice crucial details you may have missed. Testing your newly born store name wherever possible is also essential.

Consider Future Growth

Every business aims to expand and increase revenue. Even if you’re currently targeting a specific demographic, think about potential future growth. Choosing a store name that doesn’t limit your offerings to a particular age, gender, or price range is a safe bet. This way, you won’t have to go through the painful and costly process of rebranding when you want to reach a larger audience.

Give Adequate Attention to Your Domain Name

Once you’ve settled on a strong business name, the next crucial step is securing a matching domain name. Your domain should align with your store name, with no spaces. For example, the online retailer Urban Outfitters has the domain name: https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/.

Selecting the right domain extension is also important. While .com is the top choice for e-commerce sites, as it stands for “commerce,” there are other options to consider, such as .ly, .me, .org, .co, .net, and more.

If your budget allows, consider purchasing multiple domain extensions to prevent competitors from using a similar domain name with a different extension. This safeguards your brand identity.

Before purchasing a domain name from a hosting provider like GoDaddy, verify its availability. The Shopify domain name generator (https://www.shopify.com/tools/domain-name-generator)  is an effective tool for this purpose. Simply enter your preferred name, and the tool will inform you if it’s unique and available.

Lastly, check popular social media platforms and marketplaces like Amazon to ensure that no one else is using the name you’ve chosen.

Wrapping It Up 

Choosing a store name that resonates with everyone requires thorough groundwork. Take the time to carefully select a good store name, as it plays a crucial role in your online success. Remember, “Draw not your bow till your arrow is fixed.”

We hope the tips provided in this post will guide you in choosing the perfect name for your online store.

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DreamHost is a domain registration service with a Domains Search Tool where you can set various domain search parameters such as cost and availability. The search tool also recommends and suggests domain names best suited for your business.

DreamHost has more than 400 top-level domains (TLDs) available, including .club, .online, .io, .net, .xyz, .tech, .com and .blog.

They are one of the few domain registrars that offer free WHOIS domain privacy protection to keep your personal information safe. This protection is free for each domain registration and will be renewed automatically.

You will also get free indefinite subdomains for your website with VPS, dedicated server and shared hosting.

In addition, you can manage all your domains from one account if you transfer them to DreamHost. This registrar provides a single domain control panel to edit DNS records, set up domain redirections and use other features.

In addition, DreamHost protects your domain from phishing and email spam, and automatically deletes emails sent from proxy addresses.
Benefits of DreamHost:

Free individual name server.
Optional data locking (note: data locking, however, the author may be mistaken and it should be domain locking, since I cannot find anything about data locking in DreamHost via Google).
Live chat customer support available 24/7.
Free SSL certificate and domain privacy protection (i.e. hiding personal data in the WHOIS database).

Cost:

Here’s a list of prices for some of the most popular domain zones:

.com – $6.99 per year.
.net – $10.99 per year.
.org – $13.95 per year.
.info – $13.95 a year.
.club – $0.99 per year.

You get free private registration, security measures and subdomains with all domain zones.

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Shopify offers a domain name registration tool and automates the entire domain setup and registration process. It provides more than 50 domain zones, including top-level domains, regular domain names and national top-level domains. You can use national TLDs to specifically target your audience from a certain country or region and improve your search engine ranking there.

Shopify includes a domain name generation tool that suggests variations of a keyword or company name when you type them in. Or you can favor the most popular domain names. Each offered domain name option has a price per year.

Plus, it allows you to manage subdomains and email redirects, remove domains from your store, and transfer your existing domains to Shopify. In addition, all of the domains available in Shopify are offered along with privacy protection in the WHOIS database, which keeps your personal information safe.

In addition, you can use Shopify’s website builder to create your website or blog and then register a new domain right away. The website builder includes drag-and-drop functionality and 70 themes created by professionals.
Benefits:

The capacity of your Shopify store and the number of products you can sell in it is unlimited.
Over 100 international payment systems.
Search engine optimized.
Options for individual domain names.
The main domain can have many subdomains.

Cost:

Cost varies for each domain name and zone.

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NameSilo is a domain name registrar that provides domain name registration, transfer, bidding, and other services. It includes a search tool that allows you to search for one or more domain names.

You get free domain privacy protection, as well as a substantial discount on domain registration and on the transfer of a selected group of domains.

In addition, all domains come with:

DNS management tools.
Free privacy protection of the domain.
Supports Registry Lock status.
Domain Protector.
Domain portfolio management.

NameSilo also includes an online store that shows all the domains by their owners as well as non-renewed domains. You can also buy selected domains through an auction, or by paying directly to the buyer (note: the author is probably wrong and should be “paying directly to the seller”).

In addition, you can transfer existing domain names into NameSilo in three steps. All you have to do is confirm your domain name, enter your EEP code into the domain transfer form, and add the domain to the shopping cart (note: the EEP code is used to verify that you are the owner of the domain). The domain will be transferred in 5-7 days.

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Google Domains is a domain name registration service offered by Google. It provides domain names, domain and subdomain redirects, and supports a variety of top-level domains including .com, .co, .academy, .io, and .biz.

The following additional services are provided with each domain name purchased or transferred:

• Concealment of credentials in the WHOIS database.
• Domain, subdomain and e-mail redirection.
• One-click DNSSEC.
• Two-step Google authentication.
• Domain name servers from Google with 10 million domain name system (DNS) resolutions per year.

This name registrar also offers alternatives if the desired domain name is not available.
Google Domains benefits:

• 24/7 support via help center, email, chat or phone.
• You can choose from over 300 domain zones.
• All domain names are accredited by ICANN Corporation.
• The cost of domain renewal is the same as the cost of purchase.
• Cost:

Google Domains has clear pricing for all the domain zones it offers.

Here’s a list of some of the most popular top-level domain names:

.com – $12 a year.
.net – $12 a year.
.org – $12 a year.
.app – $14 per year.
.co – $30 per year.
.business – $12 a year.
.io – $60 per year.

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BuyDomain.com offers domain name registration services including single domain registration, bulk domain registration and domain transfer.

All domains are offered along with domain redirection and a cloaking feature that sends users from all the domains you own to your website. You also get a “Domain Lockdown” feature used to prevent accidental or intentional transfer of ownership of your domain. This feature also prevents anyone from redirecting your nameservers.

BuyDomain also allows you to manage your DNS records, FTP, subdomains, email, and other things in one control panel. You can even track the status of your domains and get instant alerts.

This registrar also offers the ability to automatically renew your domains and hosting plans before the expiration date.
Benefits of BuyDomain:

Buy multiple domains at once to save money.
Domain transfers are free and automated.
You can also register Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs – Internalized Domain Names).
Reserve unavailable domain names in advance at special prices.

Cost:

The search tool adjusts prices based on your search.

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Hover is a registrar that can help you register new domains, renew existing domains or transfer them to Hover. It offers more than 300 top-level domains, or domain zones, such as .com, .net, .ca, .org.

Enter the name of your business or keywords related to it and Hover will bring you hundreds of available domain address options.

This domain name registrar also offers built-in tools for managing your domains, DNS and email. As for security, Hover provides free WHOIS protection for your data for all domain names and two-factor authentication.

It can even be a plus that Hover operates solely as a domain registrar, as you won’t be inundated with offers to make additional purchases. That is, you’ll have to rely on other software for website hosting.
Benefits of Hover:

You can get an additional discount when you buy multiple domains at once.
It is possible to enable automatic domain renewal.
Domain renewal prices will not vary significantly upwards.
There is a free concealment of credentials in the WHOIS database.
The “Connect” feature will help you start using your domain name in a few clicks.

Cost:

Here’s a list of base prices for some of the most popular domain zones:

.com – $12.99 per year.
.online – $4.99 per year.
.co – $25.99 per year.
.design – $19.99 a year.
.info – $17.99 per year.
.io – $49.99 per year.

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Domain.com is a platform where you can buy domain names or web hosting services and transfer existing domain names. You can choose from available TLDs (called Top-Level Domains) and more than 25 Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs).

The platform offers all types of premium domains. Premium domains are domain names that are generally short and easy to understand. Some common premium top-level domains are .com and .net. Such domains are memorable and help, for example, to better promote a brand, improve search engine rankings and invest wisely in a business.

Domain.com provides a control panel that gives you full control over the DNS for your domain name. You can even transfer an existing domain to another platform without interrupting your website. The domain transfer process usually takes 5-7 days, but the entire process is simple and automated.

You just need to enter the domain name you would like to transfer and everything will be done automatically.

All domains come with a free SSL certificate from the Let’s Encrypt certificate authority, which allows you to protect your website from a variety of viruses and malware attacks.

Domain.com also provides numerous additional security modules for all available domains, including:

• WHOIS database credential hiding, as well as theft and forge protection.
• Full site backups.
• Malware scanning and blacklist monitoring.
• Protection from domain-related spam and unauthorized access to your site.
• Protection of your site from hackers and errors caused by the human factor, so you do not have to repeatedly scan your site for malware.

Domain.com Benefits:

• Allows you to redirect emails sent to your domain’s email addresses to other addresses.
• Some of the tools available include private/mass domain registration and DNS management.
• A quick domain search tool is available.
• You get the opportunity to purchase a domain for five years.

Cost:

The average starting cost (for the .com domain zone) is $9.99 per year.

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Namecheap is a domain registrar accredited by the Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to help you buy the domain name of your choice. It also allows you to transfer your domain name if it has been registered somewhere else. The automatic transfer of your domain will not take more than 30 minutes.

Namecheap also provides, among other things, website hosting and WordPress hosting services, security tools, and business email. It supports all types of hosting: shared hosting, VPS, managed WordPress, dedicated server and so on.

There’s Beast Mode, which helps you find and register exactly the domain name you want. You can filter your search by various parameters: price range, top-level domain, keywords, and so on. You can even narrow your search by specifying your business niche: tourism, education, travel and lifestyle, as well as other niches.

In addition, this domain registrar includes a built-in Account Panel to help you easily manage your domain.

In addition, it provides a free DNS server for your domain while you are migrating it. After the migration is complete, FreeDNS will automatically switch to the default new name server. In addition, you can also transfer any expired domain of your choice.

In addition, Namecheap promises to provide a lifetime free WhoisGuard privacy protection with zero downtime. You also get DNSSEC for free to protect your site from phraud and email for business for two months.

Qualified support, available 24/7 and, as a bonus during the domain transfer, Concierge support.

The benefits of Namecheap:

• Free hosting migration.
• Online chat with qualified specialists, available 24/7.
• Lead time to reply to a ticket is 2 hours.
• Two-factor authentication (U2F and TOTP).
• Automatic domain renewal, helping your sites to stay afloat.
• SMTP, IMAP, POP3.

Cost:

Different domain names cost differently depending on their popularity.

Here are basic prices for some popular top-level domains:

.com – $8.88 per year.
.net – $10.78 per year.
.org – $9.18 per year.
.io – $28.88 a year.

Although Namecheap offers inexpensive domain names, it

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1&1 IONOS is a European-oriented domain registrar providing many free add-ons and domain transfer and registration services.

All domains are provided with:

Wildcard SSL certificate to secure your website and improve your ranking in Google.
Professional email address with 2GB of mailbox space.
Up to 10,000 subdomains to bring your website to the look you want.

You can also migrate your existing domain name or email to 1&1 IONOS in three steps. You simply need to request an authorization code from your current provider, enter it into IONOS and confirm the migration using the link sent to your email address.
Benefits of 1&1 IONOS:

Provides a “Domain Lockdown” feature that protects your domain from being transferred by anyone who does not have that authority.
Customer service available 24/7.
One-click activation.

Cost:

Prices for some domains if registered for the first time and for one year:

.com – $0 per year (if registered for two years or longer).
.org – $1 per year.
.online – $0.80 per year.
.app – $12 per year.
.co – $8 per year.

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