The power of branding isn’t exclusive to corporate giants like Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon. Even startups and small businesses can harness this power, as demonstrated by successful small brands such as Patagonia, Mailchimp, Duolingo, Bumble, and Turo.

Regrettably, many startup owners tend to sideline branding, prioritizing other aspects like product development and customer service. As a result, despite having a robust product or service, these startups often struggle to connect with their customers due to weak branding. 

In reality, effective branding can elevate every aspect of a business, from product research and development to customer service, marketing, and even recruitment. Branding is the cohesive image that binds a business together.

So, what’s holding back some entrepreneurs? The misconception that branding is an expensive endeavor. However, it doesn’t have to be. Here are some cost-effective strategies to establish a compelling brand identity for your startup.

What is a Brand Identity?

Brand identity is more than just a memorable logo design or a catchy tagline. It’s the total package that affects how your startup is perceived, including visual elements like color, design, and logos, as well as your brand voice, messaging, and even the experience you offer to your customers. 

It’s the persona of your business, embodying the core values, ethos, and unique characteristics that set you apart from your competitors. It’s the way you communicate with the world, differentiate from your competition, and create a brand experience that encourages people to engage with you. 

Pawel Krok from EestiConsulting.ee says: “EUIPO launched the SME Fund 2025 Program — if you have a logo or a brand name, you can register this asset as a trademark with a 75% discount. You will pay €212.50 instead of €850 with this program. It’s valid for EU businesses only.”

The Goal of Having a Brand Identity

The primary goal of having a brand identity is to differentiate your startup in the marketplace and establish a consistent presence that attracts and retains loyal customers. 

A strong brand identity helps to build customer recognition and loyalty by providing a consistent, positive experience across all touchpoints — from your website to your social media platforms, customer service interactions, and even the packaging and presentation of your products or services. Consider Gamma alternatives to easily create designs that stay true to your brand’s look and feel.

Moreover, a well-defined brand identity can inspire trust and convey the message that your startup is a professional, reliable choice. It can also communicate your startup’s mission and values, helping to connect with customers who share similar values and fostering a sense of community around your brand. 

In essence, the goal of a brand identity is not just to make your startup look appealing or professional but to encapsulate the essence of who you are, what you stand for, and what unique value you bring to your customers. 

It’s about creating an emotional connection that turns casual customers into loyal brand advocates and ensuring that every interaction they have with your brand is consistent, memorable, and positive. 

Steps to Create a Brand Identity for Startups

1.    Conduct Thorough Research

Research is an affordable yet powerful tool for building a solid brand. It helps you understand your position in the market, your competitors, and your target audience, enabling you to carve out a unique identity in your industry. 

Whether you aim to be a cost-effective solution or a luxury option, or a brand that caters to diverse ethnicities and cultures, your research will guide you. Consider the following questions during this phase: 

1. What sets you apart from the competition?
2. What values define your brand?
3. Who are your target customers?
4. Who are your main competitors?
5. What unique solution do you offer for a specific problem?

These questions will steer your research in the right direction. Remember, the goal of branding is to distinguish your business from others. Without a well-defined roadmap, you risk losing your unique identity. 

2.    Define Your Business

After conducting insightful research, it’s time to consolidate your findings and define your business. This step involves establishing your value proposition and defining who you are as a business, an organization, and a solution provider. 

Your self-definition will significantly influence the subsequent steps. Once you’ve established your identity, everything else should align with it. Consistency is crucial in branding. 

Define your business based on the following: 

1. Your value proposition
2. Voice and tone
3. Visual elements
4. Customer service approach
5. Business model

Clarity is paramount here. A clear definition of your brand will enable your stakeholders and employees to align their efforts, create compelling narratives, design materials, develop products, and forge partnerships without losing sight of the brand identity. 

3.    Develop Your Branding Materials

With a clear definition of your brand, you can confidently create materials that reflect your desired image. Start with your business name. 

While choosing a business name is a personal decision, avoid generic industry-related names. Consider how brands like Apple, Amazon, and Target have thrived with non-industry-specific names. 

Of course, there are exceptions, such as Microsoft, Mailchimp, and Shopify. The key is to choose a name that stands out from the competition and avoids sounding too generic. 

Next, design your logo, which could be a mascot, emblem, typeface, monogram, or icon. Keep your brand identity in mind during this process. A logo maker tool can provide inspiration and help beginners create a logo quickly and easily. When planning your brand materials, you could also design a promotional gift, such as branded merchandise  or giveaways like corporate frames, that reflects your identity and leaves a lasting impression on customers.

4.    Test and Refine Your Brand Identity

Your brand identity should evolve naturally with your business. As you progress, you may realize that your target audience needs refining, your color palette is too intense, or your voice and tone need adjusting to align with your goals. 

Good branding recognizes and adapts to these changes, ensuring your brand identity remains top-tier. You want to be seen as a fresh, relevant, and consistent choice, not an outdated option. 

Final Thoughts

Strong branding drives sales. Look at Apple and Nike – their brand loyalty is unparalleled. Every product they release, bearing their logo, sells out instantly. While innovation and novelty play a part, it’s undeniable that many people buy these products because of the brand, not just the features. 

Achieving this level of brand loyalty is a dream for many startup owners. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. With diligent research and strategic planning, you can make a significant impact on your business, even on a modest budget. 

hat’s in a name? When it comes to businesses, the answer could be everything. A well-crafted company name can have a major impact on how customers and potential partners perceive the brand, and crafting a great one is no easy task. But what happens when the market changes or times evolve? That’s where rebranding comes in. The evolution of company names is an interesting phenomenon that highlights the importance of staying ahead of trends and understanding customer needs at any given moment.  

In this article, we’ll explore why companies choose to update their names. We’ll also provide tips on choosing effective business names and look at the impact that rebranding can have on a company’s success. 

Choosing An Effective Business Name  

Given how important choosing a company name can be, it’s worth taking the time to get it right. Here are a few tips for selecting an effective business name:  

• Keep it simple – It should be relatively easy to remember and pronounce. 
• Make sure it’s unique – Do a thorough online search of any potential names to make sure they’re not already taken by another company or trademarked. 
• Consider your audience – Your name should reflect both what you do and who you serve, so try to strike a balance between being niche enough that customers understand your purpose without pigeonholing yourself too much if you plan on expanding in the future.  
• Don’t get stuck on one concept – Brainstorm multiple ideas and test them out with friends and colleagues to get feedback on which ones are more effective. You can also consider an eCommerce name generator to further simplify this important task. 

What Is Rebranding?  

Rebranding is the process by which companies change their appearance or brand identity to remain relevant and competitive in an ever-changing market. 

This may involve anything from a simple logo update to complete alterations of name, mission statements, core values and overall brand focus.  

Rebranding can be done for many reasons, including:  

• To better reflect current customer needs 
• To target new markets or demographics 
• To modernize outdated visuals and branding elements 
• To distance the company from negative publicity 
• To capitalize on new trends or shifts in technology  

No matter the reason, rebranding should always be done with careful consideration and strategic planning to ensure that the new identity connects with customers in an effective, meaningful way.  

Notable Rebrandings  

Let’s look at some noteworthy rebrandings from the corporate world that demonstrate how companies can and do change their names and visuals over time.  

• Amazon – One of the most successful rebrands has been Amazon’s transformation from its original logo featuring a river drawn around an arrow (representing customer satisfaction) to a simple black-and-white depiction of its iconic smile logo. The change was intended to better reflect Amazon’s shift from online bookseller to global ecommerce giant. 
• Nestle – This iconic food and drink company has gone through multiple logos over its long history, though the familiar red-and-white serif lettering remains unchanged. The most recent rebrand removed the swirl from the ‘e’ in ‘Nestle,’ creating a cleaner, more modern look. 
• Apple – Despite being one of the world’s most recognizable brands, Apple is no stranger to change when it comes to its logo. The iconic bitten apple that we know today has remained essentially unchanged since 1998, but prior to that was replaced several times with simpler designs intended to reflect technological advancements at the time. 

The Impact Of Rebranding  

Rebranding can have a major impact on the success of a company, but how much it actually affects sales is difficult to say definitively. It’s clear though that having an identity that resonates with customers—and staying up-to-date with trends—can go a long way in keeping your business competitive in today’s market. 

At the end of the day, rebranding should always be done thoughtfully and strategically, taking into account customer needs and what makes sense for your brand in the long term. With careful consideration and planning, businesses can find success with a new look. 

In Conclusion 

Rebranding can help companies to stay competitive and reach new customers, but it’s important to remember that rebranding isn’t just about changing your logo or name; it’s also an opportunity to realign customer expectations and focus marketing efforts on the right target audience. By taking these considerations into account, businesses can ensure their rebranding is successful in connecting them with the right customer base.

Are you looking for ways to create a combined B2B & B2C store on the Shopify store? If so, you’re on the right path. Running a combined B2B & B2C store can bring a lot of business opportunities and maximize profits. But sometimes it can also be tricky to get right due to multiple factors involved such as setting up of wholesale / b2b discounts, product pricing, shipping costs, etc. 

In this blog post, we will provide a step-by-step guide that will help you create a successful combined B2B and B2C store on Shopify. We will also share some tips along the way to improve overall functionality and customer experience on your Shopify store.

So, let’s get started!

What is a B2B and B2C?

Briefly, a B2B (business-to-business) company usually sells its products and services to other companies. A B2C (business-to-consumer) company, on the other hand, sells products or services to an individual or direct consumers.

Does Shopify allow you to run a combined B2B and B2C store?

Yes, Shopify does allow you to run a combined B2B and B2C store on their platform and in one single store. However, there are three different methods you can choose to run a successfully b2b/wholesale and b2c business. 

1. Running your separate wholesale / b2b store on Shopify’s “Handshake” platform.
2. Upgrading your current Shopify store to a Shopify Plus plan to enable B2B features of Shopify.
3. Installing a 3rd-party Shopify Wholesale App that offers the feasibility of running a B2B+B2C store.

We will discuss some of these in detail in the later part of this article.

Benefits of running a combined B2B & B2C store on Shopify

There are many benefits of having both types of Shopify stores under one umbrella.  

The most obvious benefit is that you can reach out to two different markets with just one store. This means that you can save a lot of money on running and promoting two separate stores. 

Furthermore, you can take advantage of the fact that many consumers are now open to buying products from businesses, and vice versa. This is especially true for products that are related to each other, such as in the case of office supplies. By having both types of products in one store, you provide your customers with an easier option to purchase one or multiple products based on the b2b and b2c offered discounts. 

Another benefit is that you can use data from your B2C sales to improve your B2B sales (and vice versa). This data can help understand what type of products are selling well, what type of promotions work, etc. This information can then be used to improve the overall experience for your customers and help increase sales. 

Finally, by running a combined B2B and B2C store on Shopify, you can take advantage of Shopify’s many features and integrations.

What are the challenges of running a combined B2B & B2C store on Shopify?

Running a combined B2B & B2C store on Shopify seems like an easy task but there are a few challenges that come across. These include: 

• Creating a streamlined checkout process for both B2B and B2C customers.
• Managing inventory and shipping costs for both wholesale and retail orders.
• Password-protecting or hiding specific content on your Shopify store.
• Setting up different pricing and discounts for your products with the scan of a QR code.
• Creating a seamless experience for both types of customers in a single store.

But you can overcome these challenges with careful planning and execution.

Methods & steps to create a combined B2B & B2C store on Shopify

Now that we have discussed the benefits and challenges of running a combined B2B & B2C store on Shopify, let’s take a look at how you can set one up.

Method 1: With Shopify Plus’ B2B Ecommerce Plan/Feature

If you have an existing store, simply upgrade your plan to Shopify plus to be able to access B2B features developed by Shopify developers and sell DTC and wholesale from a single store. If you don’t have an existing store, you can create one by signing up here: https://www.shopify.com

The Shopify Plus plan starts from $2000/month and it offers the following B2B features such as: 

• Company Profiles
• Price Lists
• Payment Terms
• B2B Checkout
• Customer Accounts
• B2B Analytics

For more information, you can see this article by Shopify on B2B.

Method 2: With a 3rd-party Shopify Wholesale App

If you don’t want to upgrade your plan to Shopify Plus but still want to run a combined B2B & B2C from a single Shopify store, you can follow these steps: 

To create a store for Shopify wholesale without Shopify Plus, you can add/install a 3rd-party app that offers this functionality. There are many wholesale apps available in the Shopify App Store, but we recommend using Wholesale Pricing Discount (WPD). 

Wholesale Pricing Discount app is the only app available on the Shopify store that lets you choose the installation type and run the wholesale stores according to your needs. It allows you to create a Wholesale experience for your B2C and B2B customers by: 

1. Creating a separate Dedicated Wholesale Section (DWS), which later you can add as a menu item in your current B2C store.

2. Customizing your existing store for wholesale discounts (in your current Shopify store’s theme) – allowing you to show discounts and pricing to your B2C and B2B customers from one store.

Here are some key features of the Wholesale Pricing Discount Shopify Wholesale App: 

• Wholesale signup form
• Tiered/volume pricing
• Net term payments (Net30, Net60, etc.)
• Percentage and flat price discounts
• Discount coupons for manual orders

and more… 

Now, let’s look at the steps to create a B2B & B2C combined store using the Wholesale Pricing Discount (WPD) app. 

STEP 1: Add the WPD app to your store by clicking on Add app button

STEP 2: Go to the Apps > Wholesale Pricing Discount 

Configure the app according to your B2B and B2C needs. 

For more information visit their WPD help center here.

STEP 3: Select the app customization type 

As we mentioned before, the Wholesale Pricing Discount app gives you two options to display your b2b and b2c store to your customers: 

1. with the Dedicated wholesale section (can be added as a menu item in your b2c store).

1. with B2B/B2C combined store (installed in your current theme’s code).

Choose the desired customization type and follow the next instructions in the app dashboard. 

That’s it! This is how simple it is to create a combined B2B and B2C store on Shopify.

How to make your combined B2B and B2C store successful?

Branding

One of the most important aspects to consider when running a combined B2B and B2C store is your branding. It’s important to have a cohesive look and feel throughout your website so that customers can easily identify your products and services, no matter which section they’re shopping in. 

Consider using the same logo, colors, and font throughout your site, as well as similar product photography. If you have different target audiences for your B2B and B2C sections, you may want to create separate sub-brands for each one so that customers can easily tell them apart.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, it’s important to strike the right balance between making a profit and being competitive. 

Do some market research to see what other businesses are selling similar products for what price, and then price your products accordingly. You may also want to offer discounts or wholesale pricing for bulk orders to encourage customers to buy more.

Regular promotions and discounts

Shoppers love a good deal, so it’s important to offer regular promotions and discounts on your website. This will not only help you move inventory, but it will also encourage customers to come back to your site. 

You can offer discounts in several ways, such as through coupon codes, special sales, or loyalty programs. Just be sure to promote your deals prominently on your website so that shoppers are aware of them.

Shipping

Another important factor to consider is shipping. If you’re selling physical products, you’ll need to decide how much to charge for shipping and whether or not you’ll offer free shipping for certain orders. 

You may also want to consider offering expedited shipping options for customers who need their items quickly. Free shipping is often a great incentive for customers to make a purchase, so it’s worth considering if it’s feasible for your business. 

Separate checkout process

A payment checkout process is essential for any running eCommerce business, but it’s especially important for B2B stores. If you’re running a combined B2B and B2C store then you should have two different options such as, for B2C customers – default Shopify checkout, and for B2B customers – a wholesale/net order checkout. This can be achieved using the 3rd-party Shopify checkout app(s).

Easy store navigation

Your B2B and B2C Shopify store should be easy to navigate for even non-technical users. Your customers should be able to find what they’re looking for with a few clicks. 

To do that, use clear and concise labels for your menus and sub-menus, and include search functionality on every page so that customer is happy with surfing your Shopify store. 

Including customer testimonials

To reduce the buying decision of your B2B and B2C customers on your store, you should include one or multiple customer testimonials. 

If you have any positive reviews or testimonials from previous customers, be sure to showcase them prominently on your store. You can also include them in your product pages under the description or Add to Cart / Buy Now button.

Customer support

Finally, it’s important to offer excellent customer support, no matter what type of store you’re running. 

Final Thoughts

As you can see, it’s possible to set up a B2B and B2C combined store on Shopify. However, there are some things to keep in mind as you go about setting this up. We hope that following the steps and tips mentioned in this article will help you create a seamless combined B2B and B2C shopping experience for you and your customers that will drive sales and grow your business.

It’s a dark and scary world that we live in. It seems like every day another brand has been ousted from the public domain for letting their marketing slip. People are running for the hills to avoid getting any contact with these brands because they feel betrayed by this company’s lack of integrity and respect towards them as potential customers. So, how do you as a marketer ensure that your brand does not go down this path? Read on to find out!

Below listed are 5 mistakes that may lead to marketing failing your brand:

1) Ignoring your social media – Social media is where people spend most of their time nowadays. They live there, they work there, they date there and they do most of their shopping there. But, as more and more time gets invested in these channels, brands are still not getting it right.

2) Not using the right metrics – Metrics are important. If you don’t measure your success properly you won’t know what is working and what isn’t. You don’t know how to optimize your campaigns or if you are even on the right track.

3) Ignoring their customers – As a marketer, it is easy to get carried away with the next big thing or all of that new knowledge coming in from various Google Adwords courses that you have done. But, you need to remember that it’s not all about you, it’s about the customer.

4) Thinking ‘big data’ means more data – Big data is great, but if you are using it to draw conclusions from statistics and then applying those conclusions everywhere without getting any real face-to-face contact with your customers or understanding what they actually want then this is just not going to work for you. You may be able to optimize certain things but over time people will see through your marketing BS and this will affect their perception of the brand.

5) Lying to the customer – This is what the customers are absolutely fed up with now – lying to them and not being upfront. If you are a company that is honest and open, they will want to be a part of your brand because they know that you respect them as human beings. If people feel like they have been misled or lied to, this will make them want nothing more than to distance themselves from the brand in order to protect their own identity.

Conclusion

If you want to ensure that your brand does not get caught up in this list then you need to ensure that you are not making these major mistakes and if you are then try to reverse this as soon as possible. If your brand is already on this list, take steps to get off it by taking a good look at what you are doing and figuring out what needs to be done in order to fix the situation. Brands need marketing plans that they stick to because they do not want others to judge them on their past actions.