The global e-commerce industry has never been bigger. And eMarketer’s global forecast of $5.5 trillion in retail e-commerce sales for 2022 is a testament to this fact. This boost in e-commerce may have started as the COVID-19 pandemic forced buyers and sellers to change their behaviors, but the USA’s International Trade Commission predicts that the e-commerce share of global sales will likely continue to increase from 18% now to 22% in 2024.

New businesses are launching or moving online every day, and one way to attract and support them is to offer the .store domain extension. Here’s why it’s a popular choice among new online businesses.

1: .Store makes a website’s purpose clear

Today, there are about 7.1 million e-commerce sites around the world. And as more and more players enter the market, it becomes increasingly challenging to stand out online. The .store domain extension is one way to do so.

When your clients use a .store domain, they instantly communicate to potential visitors that their website is… well… a store. This sounds simple, but the impact is pretty profound. The person doing the google search immediately knows that this website sells what they’re looking for.

This is the case for domain names that use the format [insert product name].store, but also for brand names, both corporate and personal. Take, for example, pop star Liam Payne. His merch store LiamPayne.store is short, memorable, and a clear indicator that it’s the place he chooses to sell his merchandise. 

2: .Store opens the door to a global market

When clients can’t find their preferred domain name on a traditional domain extension like .com, their next bet is usually a ccTLD, like .co.uk or .au. While their native country-code extension is a great choice for some businesses, it can limit those pursuing a global audience. 

A scalable extension, .store is a great solution. It makes it clear that the website is a store but also avoids leaving the impression that the product(s) is only available in certain markets. For example, a .uk domain might deter North American buyers. From corporate merch stores for MNCs to startup e-commerce stores with their eyes on a big goal, a .store domain extension can help communicate that you sell globally.

3: .Store offers short, keyword-rich options

Fact 1: .Store can help your clients create shorter, more memorable domain names. Take, for instance, the live example of Marathon, a Peru-based specialty sporting goods store. If the .com was taken, they might have been tempted to modify their domain to “marathonstore.com” of “marathonperu.com.” There’s nothing wrong with these names, but marathon.store, which they ultimately went with, is more memorable and meaningful.

Fact 2: .Store can also help your clients create a keyword-rich domain. It doesn’t get much better than including the keyword “store” right in the domain name! And it’s an excellent keyword to target: every month, 192,500,000 Google searches in the US contain the word “store” across 7,500,000 unique keywords.

In conclusion

The aim of the game is to help your e-commerce customers find their stride in a highly competitive online market space. And offering the .store domain extension is one small but very sure step you can take towards achieving that.

This post was sponsored by our partners at Radix, registry operator for .store and other popular domain extensions.