How to Build a Dropshipping Brand That Clicks

Without dropshipping, the eCommerce landscape might not be as bright as it is today. It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry and shows no signs of slowing down.

Since more businesses are jumping on the dropshipping bandwagon to personally experience benefits like lower startup costs and reduced risk, it is even more integral that your brand is rock solid. You need to know it up, down, and sideways.

Your brand is how you create memorability. It allows you to connect more strongly with your audience, fostering a sense of loyalty while growing your customers. It’s part of what separates you from the rest of the pack (besides your great products).

However, creating a brand from scratch is a tall order, especially if this is your first time. After all, you have to make it good, so how do you do it?

In this blog post, I’ll show you how to build a dropshipping brand, as well as a few good examples to help you get inspired.

Let’s go!

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Dropshipping branding is key to differentiating yourself in a crowded market, increasing brand loyalty, and converting more customers for reliable sales.
Innovation and consistency are important in your branding efforts. With so many eCommerce brands, you must always be one step ahead.

Understanding the Basics of Dropshipping Branding

As more dropshipping stores pop up left, right, and center, the power of a good brand increases. But what does it mean to have a dropshipping brand?

A brand is how you identify yourself in the digital marketplace. It’s what makes you who you are. Include the following:

Voice or tone

What kind of tone do you use when you interact with your audience? Are you friendly yet sharp, warm, welcoming, informative, brainy, mysterious, or cool? These traits comprise your brand tone or voice.

You have to choose your tone carefully, as once you establish it, you should stick with it going forward unless you do a major rebranding.

One of the biggest difficulties companies face is being consistent in their tone when multiple people handle various parts of the business, a challenge made all the more difficult when working with third parties through dropshipping.

Logo

The next consideration for your brand is the logo, a graphic that represents your dropshipping brand. Yeah, no pressure or anything, right?

While you might want everything but the kitchen sink in your logo, simplicity is best at the end of the day. The most memorable logos are almost too simple.

Think about the Nike swoosh or the Apple logo. They’re uncomplicated and memorable because of it.

That said, it varies by your niche or industry. For example, luxury logos, such as the Ferrari or Bentley logos, tend to be more involved design-wise.

Choose what you feel is right to represent your brand, which I recognize is no small feat. You may have to consider hiring a graphic designer or artist to help you conceptualize your ideas.

Color scheme

The color scheme you select will accompany your dropshipping brand logo design. This will be featured in your logo (more than likely) and your shop design. You might also use the color scheme in your emails to bring more cohesiveness to your brand.

Can you select colors you like? Not really. You have to consider the psychology of colors and their meaning to your brand.

This graphic explains it well:

Image courtesy of BAKEUP Beauty

If your favorite color is red but your brand is all about being zen, there’s a disconnect between your eCommerce company and your brand colors, since red is a passionate, energetic, fiery hue.

Besides the psychology of colors, you must think about how the hues will represent your brand image and personality. Oh, and don’t forget about how they look together.

Complementary colors work well because they’re opposites on the color wheel, but some colors together are too jarring.

That’s why I recommend testing several versions of your colors to find the ones most appealing to your audience.

Mission statement

What is your eCommerce brand all about? Your mission statement clarifies why your brand was founded, which you should remember when identifying your brand voice and imagery.

Brand values

Just as important are your brand values, which tell people what pillars of craftsmanship and customer service are the true north for your dropshipping store and brand. Building your values into your brand keeps it authentic.

Typography

The last element that’s baked into your whole brand identity is typography.

Some brands become associated with specific fonts or text styles. Again, you see this often in luxury brands, which sometimes use romanticized cursive text for their logos.

You don’t have to do that if you don’t wish to, but you should consider the typography you use, ensuring it’s readable and gels with your branding.

Strategic Planning for Dropshipping Branding

Okay, so those are the basics of branding, but how do you put them together into something actionable for your dropshipping business? By implementing these strategies, of course.

How to develop a unique brand proposition

Your brand proposition is how your eCommerce products fix your customers’ problems. Any brand can say their carpet shampoo cleans rugs, but that’s not unique, wouldn’t you agree?

You need that special edge to separate you from your competitors and guide your audience toward your brand specifically.

That means determining what problem your audience has based on data and research. Next, assess the strong points of your product, then connect the dots between customer and product.

Along the way, ensure you find ways to differentiate your brand and/or product from what’s already on the market. Does its battery last longer?

Does it lack a new feature that your competitors do not have? Do you offer a better warranty? Whatever your benefits, make sure they’re obvious to your audience.

Tips for finding your target audience and tailoring your brand messages

Let’s take a few steps back. Who is your target audience, anyway? I’m glad you asked! These strategies will help you find them:

Look at your existing audience and interview or survey them to learn more about their demographics, psychographics, and geographics. This will help you understand their pain points.
Segment your audience and use that data to make customer avatars or personas.
Identify the traits you don’t want in your target market, which will help you narrow down who fits your definition.
Assess your competitors’ audiences to determine if they meet your target market goals.
Use market research to find potential audiences for selling products.

Once you’ve tracked down your target market, it’s time to connect with them using marketing measures. This requires a combination of email, social media, advertising, and content marketing. Your messages must always be tailored to your audience through segmentation, personalization, and automation.

The value of selecting the right suppliers for brand consistency

You’ll recall my previous point, which was that one of the biggest challenges of building a dropshipping brand is your suppliers. They’re an extension of your brand since they do parts of your business for you, but they’re not usually as invested in your brand as you are.

But they can be! It’s just a matter of selecting the right suppliers.

A good supplier should want your brand to succeed because if your eCommerce company does well, so does theirs.

Marketing Strategies for Brand Promotion

I wrote an entire guide dedicated to marketing for dropshipping businesses that you should check out as your eCommerce company begins.

The following tips are catered exclusively towards brand development and building.

Social media

A healthy social media presence is one of the biggest ways to establish and grow your dropshipping brand. You need to be live on all of them, from Facebook to LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.

The goal of your posts should be to build and sustain connections. Use storytelling elements to draw interest in your brand, then continue building the relationship by posting regularly.

However, don’t make it all one-sided.

Engage with your audience whenever possible. Respond to their comments and DMs. Put polls, quizzes, and surveys online to show you value their opinions and feedback.

Host contests encouraging your audience to participate, then share their entries on your account, even those that don’t win.

SEO

Do you have to be an SEO guru if you start a dropshipping eCommerce business? No, but the more well-versed you are, the more successful your eCommerce company will be, so learning the basics is worthwhile.

Adding alt tags and meta descriptions: One of the best ways to optimize content across your site is by using meta descriptions and alt tags. Insert meta descriptions into your blog posts to succinctly describe the contents in 150 characters or less. Alt tags describe the images on your site and should be applied to all graphics you have uploaded.
Writing descriptive URLs: Don’t just use the autogenerated URL when creating a new page. Modify the URL so it’s more descriptive, explaining what the page is about and utilizing keywords if possible.
Deleting duplicate pages: Double posting happens, but duplicates can hurt your SEO ranking. Remove or condense the duplicate pages.
Building link authority: Start by inserting internal links to relevant, informative sources on your website, then build backlinks by finding trustful partners to work with.

Email marketing

It’s time to grow your email list.

eCommerce businesses especially can benefit from email marketing, as you can use email to incentivize repeat purchases (with discounts and deals), build loyalty with exclusive content, drive referrals if you start a program through email, and convert leads by nurturing your growing relationship.

How do you get more subscribers? Try these tactics:

Host a giveaway or contest where entry requires sharing an email address.

Add exit intent pop-ups to your website to capture disengaged users before they leave your site, possibly for the last time.
Use opt-in forms in blog content and across your website, incentivizing leads with checklists, eBook chapters, webinar transcripts, and other high-quality content.
Post reviews and testimonials, which build social proof and encourage the lead to trust your business.

Woohoo! Now you’ve got an email list going. Excellent job, but your work isn’t done yet. You need to keep your subscribers engaged, which requires regular email content.

Between a mix of newsletters, product drops and announcements, company news, behind-the-scenes looks, and industry reports, you can use email marketing to reach your audience at all stages of the sales funnel.

The key here is audience segmentation. Divide your potential customers into groups, then personalize their email content so it feels tailored to them. Use automation to send emails effortlessly through a pre-built workflow.

Customer Experience and Brand Loyalty

eCommerce businesses of all sizes chase customer loyalty like a leprechaun does a rainbow.

If you can get it, you can usually keep it, as loyalty rewards service Zinrelo reports that in 2024, 77% of shoppers who are loyal to a brand have stuck with it for at least 10 years, and sometimes longer.

There are so many more benefits of brand loyalty. Customers are likelier to refer you to their friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. It’s also easier to sell products to these customers, with Zinrelo finding that the chances of selling to your current customers are 60 to 70% versus five to 20% for a lead.

Implement these measures to increase the connection between your brand and audience.

Enhance customer service

Today, most consumers (68%) agree that customer service is a primary determinant of whether they have a positive brand experience.

What can your eCommerce business do to increase customer satisfaction? The tricky part about dropshipping is that if you’re not the one sending the orders out, you don’t get a say over when they’ll get delivered.

This is why I must underscore the value of a good supplier yet again. You’ll have fewer headaches, keeping your customers happy and eager to buy again and again.

Personalize product packaging

It’s worth going the extra mile to discuss personalizing and customizing your packaging with your supplier. If you don’t, they’ll ship your items out in generic boxes, which won’t favor your branding.

Remember that custom, branded products, and packaging are usually more expensive, but the initial cost should pay back dividends when you build a more loyal following of repeat buyers.

Make the unboxing experience fun

Today, unboxing videos are all the rage.

Why not give your audience something fun to unwrap (besides the products themselves) when packaging your own products, too? For example, you could print a secret message on the inside flaps of the box, or perhaps there’s a surprise hidden in the packing peanuts.

Ask for feedback

While your steps will build a stronger following, your audience can always help you improve even more. And who knows better what your audience wants than your customers themselves? Encourage them to share their feedback on their latest order.

Ask questions about whether they were satisfied with the order quality, degree of customer service, shipping speed, and packaging.

These insights aren’t always easy to swallow, but they’re necessary to grow and improve your dropshipping business.

Start a loyalty program

What’s one of the best ways to keep your customers loyal? Why? You can do this by rewarding them for sticking with you through thick and thin!

A rewards program will give your customers increasingly better gifts, prizes, and freebies for referrals and repeat purchases, thus making them want to buy even more. They could even refer others if your loyalty program is that good!

Leveraging Technology in Dropshipping Branding

Many eCommerce businesses cut their teeth on a top eCommerce platform, like WooCommerce or Shopify. Once they succeed, they break away, forging their own paths.

From a branding perspective, this gives you more control over how you present your business, but you can still tailor your storefront exactly the way you like it using the above eCommerce platforms and others.

These platforms may be how most of your audience discovers you, which necessitates using customer behavior tracking and market analysis tools. Top customer behavior tracking tools include Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Lucky Orange, Mouseflow, Fullstory, Hotjar, Heatmaps, Tableau, and LogRocket.

You can gain valuable, in-depth insights into your audience’s behaviors and actions, including which products they can’t get enough of and which they don’t care for. This data can help you adjust your branding to gain a bigger following.

Market analysis tools like Answer the Public, Market Explorer, Google Trends, EyeOn, Attest, One2Target, Qualaroo, Exploding Topics, and Remesh can help you stay abreast of what’s happening in your industry.

By remaining on the cutting edge, you can strengthen your eCommerce brand and make it an even clearer choice that your online business reigns supreme.

4 Real-World Dropshipping Branding Examples

The power of dropshipping branding can do a lot of good for businesses. Just take a look at these eCommerce store examples for evidence of that.

1. Shop Kako

From its humble beginnings on Shopify to its major presence for all things kawaii, Shop Kako was founded with the belief “that life is meant to be fun.”

Its website branding is very strong, featuring a blue-haired smiling human mascot. Browsing through the site, I see repeated instances of blue-haired smiling girls, sometimes illustrated and sometimes IRL (with the help of graphics).

Besides the logo, the Shop Kako website embodies cutesy vibes with its bright colors and cartoon imagery.

2. Fashion by Teresa

Another brand built with Shopify is Fashion by Teresa. Remember how I was talking about luxury branding elements earlier? You’ll see many of them on this website, which features a clean layout (lots of whitespace), large-scale graphics, and a typography-based logo (using the FBT initials, a shorthand of the brand name).

Here’s another great feature of the site: you can check out FBT reviews right on the homepage’s sidebar, reading insights from real customers before making a purchasing decision.

3. Cloudsharks

Now, these are downright cute shoes! Cloudsharks are plush slides for everyday wear around the house or when out and about running errands. The logo is ingenious, combining a cloud and a shark fin.

The website uses a nice color scheme, all shades of blue reminiscent of sharks or at least their watery homes. Lots of high-res, large-scale imagery is designed to drive a sale, as is mentioned in Cloudsharks, which has earned more than 832 reviews and was rated five stars on each.

4. Warmly

Discover enchanting home décor via Warmly, a dropshipping brand specializing in furniture, bathroom, and lighting solutions. Its site is as inviting as its products, with a clear navigation menu, oversized product images, and whitespace.

The Warmly logo is the brand name in bold and lowercase – simple but effective!

Conclusion

Dropshipping is a viable business model, but it’s especially advantageous when combined with strong branding. I’ve suggested many great strategies to emulate, but I also encourage you to build your brand.

Developing and strengthening your brand will take your dropshipping business to the moon, so give this time the care and attention it deserves, and then watch as your hard work pays off.

EngageBay is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer support software for small businesses, startups, and solopreneurs. You get email marketing, marketing automation, landing page and email templates, segmentation and personalization, sales pipelines, live chat, and more.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What is the first step in building a brand for a dropshipping business?

The first step is to know yourself. Sit down and identify your dropshipping company’s most important traits or characteristics.

2. How can I differentiate my dropshipping brand from competitors?

Be different. Market yourself in ways that your competitors don’t. Form strong relationships and provide such quality customer service that people can’t help but talk about you.

3. What are the best platforms for building a dropshipping brand?

Shopify is certainly up there. You can also try Squarespace, Wix, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and AliExpress.

4. How important is customer service in dropshipping branding?

Incredibly! If you don’t give the people what they want (quality service), that too can become a part of your brand, albeit one you won’t want attached to your dropshipping business.

5. Can dropshipping still be profitable with additional branding costs?

Absolutely, as the effort and money you put into branding can pay back dividends when you convert more loyal, long-term customers.

6. What are common mistakes in dropshipping branding and how can they be avoided?

Focusing on the wrong niche is certainly one error. The other mistakes are working with poor-quality suppliers, having sky-high expectations, and failing to consider customer feedback.

Avoiding these mistakes is as easy as knowing your goals and what you offer. Be picky about who you work with, and of course, temper your expectations where you can.