.Store Domains

Just a quick note here. Our domain registrar, Tucows, hosted a webinar about selling online when the .store (dot store) top level domain (TLD) became available. I was curious and watched/listened to most of it, the reason being many small businesses have made the shift to selling online, especially during the pandemic. With the growth in number of websites, being found, i.e. search utility visibility, continues to be a challenge. The bigger portals, Etsy, Shopify, and even Google, are doing whatever they can to suck you onto their platforms—the customer and the business person—at the detriment of arriving at individually branded websites.

The takeaways from the two featured speakers:

• A great, short domain name can still be bought on the .store TLD, sometimes your first choice.
• The .store TLD is a clear call to action—no ambiguity that product will be sold on the website.
• Even if you have a store on a portal, it’s important to have your own branding, offering credibility.

One of the speakers, when asked which marketing activities bring in the most revenue, listed them as:

1. Her email list generated the most sales. (My two cents: remind your people to share your email, spread the word, perhaps offering them an incentive.)
2. Live/video/group engagement where you can share specifics and direct people to that nice, short domain name.
3. Social media way down the list.